Ryan Harwood certainly isn’t the first Brisbane Lions player to have re-invented himself as a defender.

Former premiership team-mates Justin Leppitsch and Jason Akermanis, who were once considered erratic forwards during their formative AFL years, were famously moved down back in 1999 by then Senior Coach Leigh Matthews with great success.

Leppitsch went onto become one of the most dominant and damaging centre half-backs in the modern game, while Akermanis eventually graduated into the midfield where he won a Brownlow Medal.

You might even remember that both Daniel Merrett and Joel Patfull commenced their careers up forward before settling into key defensive roles.

Harwood, meanwhile, was drafted to the Club primarily as an in-and-under midfielder at the end of 2009, but now seems to have finally found his niche across half-back so far this season.

It didn’t come about by some fluke either, with the Lions coaches identifying his obvious strengths and developing his defensive game accordingly with the reserves side in the local NEAFL competition.

Fresh from the best performance of his young AFL career last Sunday against Melbourne, Harwood is beginning to warm to the idea of becoming a more permanent member of the Lions’ back six.

“I've taken the challenge on. I suppose I just had to adapt to keep playing,” Harwood told Lions fans during Wednesday’s online chat.

“It’s only been a few games, but I’m really starting to like being down back now.”

The 20 year-old Tasmanian seems to have shelved any plans of joining the Lions’ star-studded midfield - at least in the immediate future.

“I'll probably play down back for the next few years, and hopefully I will become a midfielder towards the end of my career,” he said.

“Hopefully I can learn a fair bit from guys like Jed Adcock, Joel Patfull and Josh Drummond in the meantime.”

Also during his 30-minute web chat, Harwood revealed his unique pre-game ritual, the reasons behind him inheriting the No.2 Lions guernsey, the best dancer at the Club and his favourite video segment on LIONS TV.

CLICK HERE to read the full transcript