BRISBANE Lions recruit Brent Staker says leaving West Coast was a tough career decision but he is looking forward to coming up against his former club in round one.

Staker played 110 games in seven seasons with West Coast, including the 2005 losing grand final, but injury restricted the utility to just six games last season.

After a tough year, the 25-year-old said he asked West Coast to trade him in order to get the most out of his football career.

"It's one of those tough decisions in life that have to be made in a career you want to cherish," Staker said on Wednesday.

"To make my career the best I can I had to make a tough decision. I thought the best move was to move interstate and play some more football.

"I had a bit of time on the sidelines to weight it all up and it came down to just one night; we really had to be ruthless and make a decision."

Staker joined former teammate Adam Selwood via video link for a media conference on Wednesday and said communication with his former housemate had been cut off to an extent this week.

He said Selwood and forward Ash Hansen were his closest friends at his former club and he was glad to be facing the Eagles in his debut for the Lions at the Gabba.

"Once the trade went through a couple of weeks later I found out it was West Coast round one," Staker said. 

"It hit me pretty quickly (but) as the pre-season's gone on it's probably the best thing to happen.

"We always keep in contact, but now there's a game of footy you've got to be serious and put that aside for five minutes."

Staker said his new club would have the edge over West Coast in its forward line, with Brendan Fevola and Jonathan Brown lining up alongside each other for the first time in a regular season fixture.

Staker is expected to join the "twin towers" in a third tall forward role, and he said the variety of the Lions' attack would be its strength. 

"That's the exciting thing about it, it's not predictable," he said. "It's going to be a headache for many teams.

"I think our forward line is strong. Obviously I know West Coast really well, so their backline is good enough probably to match us in some areas.

"It's going to be a great game, but you'd have to back us in."