BRISBANE Lions captain Jonathan Brown says the lure of more success is driving he and Simon Black to extend their decorated careers.

Both players are technically unrestricted free agents, but have trigger clauses in their contracts to extend for another season.

Although Black has left the door open for retirement all year, his triple premiership teammate Brown expects the Brownlow medallist to go around again in 2013.

"He loves playing footy. All indications at the moment are he's keen to keep playing," Brown said at the Gabba on Thursday morning.

"He's had a couple of issues with his body this year, but he's no different to most guys at the back end of their career.

"We'd love to see him keep playing, his form has been outstanding again.

"He's still our main contributor in the midfield. In what's a very young midfield apart from 'Blacky' and 'Huddo' (ruckman Ben Hudson), their experience is important to help the younger guys along."

Brown said he had seen enough improvement in the Lions in 2012 to suggest success was not too far away.

The Lions won just four games last season and already have nine this year ahead of Sunday's final round against the Western Bulldogs at home.

He said the development of players like Dayne Zorko, Josh Green, Ryan Harwood and Rohan Bewick was a sign the next generation of players was starting to contribute more consistently and help the Lions leap forward.

"I'm starting to see greater ownership of the team now," Brown said.

"Guys are not just happy to get a game, they want the team to be successful and they're really trying to drive that, and that's exciting for a veteran looking at that."

After suffering his third facial fracture within 12 months during the pre-season, Brown has strung together 19 successive games, kicking 42 goals this season.

He said he wasn't sure how many years he had left, but felt he was now coping with the rigours of the game again.

"I'm enjoying it and the body's feeling not too bad. I know I'm towards the back end of things but while you're enjoying your footy and while the group's heading in the right direction, I'm keen to keep rolling," he said.

"I'd love to just keep playing until we can get some success. I'm a realist about it. You weigh things up at the back end of every campaign I think.

"The main thing is you've got to be enjoying the training and enjoying the footy and getting some on-field success and we're starting to get that as a group.

"I know we're heading in a positive direction so that's a pretty big motivating factor for veterans like 'Blacky' and myself that are fortunate enough to be involved in a lot of successful teams. At this stage of our career, we just want to play for team success."

Michael Whiting covers Brisbane Lions news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_mikewhiting

The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL