Brisbane Lions Assistant Coach Adrian Fletcher recently caught up with lions.com.au for an assessment of each individual player for 2011.

Jed Adcock
Jed stepped up in his leadership this year with Browny knocked out twice. He took the reins there and did really well. He led through example on game day and finished an equal fourth at Club Champion, which was his highest finish. That was really well deserved.

Todd Banfield
Toddy gives us that speed in the forward line. He’s very brave, goes in headfirst and I think kicked 24 goals. For his development, he needs to move up the ground out of that crumbing role and into a wing or half forward where he can get more of the footy. We want to get him 18 possessions a game, not 10, so that’s where he’s going.

Claye Beams
Claye played early games and then had a stress fracture. He’s a guy that we need because he’s a long runner in the midfielder. We don’t have a lot of those. He can turn up in the back line and turn up in the forward line. He can kick goals, he’s got a good penetration kick. He’s just got to work on his inside game and then he’ll be complete.

Rohan Bewick
Bewick has elite running. He runs long in games and turns up when he’s needed. He just has to improve that inside ball to win his own footy. We know he can get that uncontested footy outside, but we want him to win it a bit more inside. He’ll do that over the pre-season.

Simon Black
He’s the Rolls Royce. He just keeps going. He had a fantastic year. He was tagged consistently - I can’t wait for the day that he doesn’t get tagged. That will mean we’re going well when one of our young players are getting tagged and Blacky’s left alone!

Jonathan Brown
Jon Brown, what can we say. He got the most courageous award from the Players’ Association, but we need Jonny to stay on the ground this year, so we’ll put some cottonwool on him in 2012 so he doesn’t knock himself out of 2012. On a serious note, he’s fantastic, he’s a great leader, he’s a great bloke and he’s a very good footballer.

Amon Buchanan
Amon played a few games, then lost his position in the side, but we know Amon is brave, he’s improving his fitness, he’s improving his decision-making, so he’ll be pushing for that half-forward position next year.

Mitch Clark
Mitch had a few injury dramas unfortunately this year. He played some really good games but probably didn’t play to his full potential but we know he’ll bounce back.

Tom Collier
Tom came in and out. He plays on the talls and smalls in the Drummo mould. Tom needs to do another pre-season to see if he can stretch his game.

Aaron Cornelius
He’s got the best hands in the Club. We just need to get his tank up. He can hit the ball at full speed on the lead and he’s a good goal kicker. He’s improved his body and size and he needs to go to the next level, but consistently he can kick 2 goals a game, which is what we want - a multiple goal kicker and he’s one of the guys who can do that.

Josh Drummond
Drummo’s important. He kicks the ball so well, we just want to get him out there consistently. We know that he has those small issues with his body but if we can get another 5 months into him in pre-season he can play consistently in that half-back role on a wing. He’s an elite kicker and one of our most important players down back.

Josh Dyson
Dyson gives us speed. He’s not tall or wide in stature but what he does do is give us that tackling pressure and can kick a goal. He’s brave for his size and we hold high hopes for Dyso to come into that crumbing role that Todd Banfield fills.

Mitch Golby
He’s one of our debutants. He’s got speed to burn, but you wouldn’t know that, watching him. He’s a very laconic player. But what you need in the modern game is speed in the defence, and he gives us that. He needs to improve his consistency, but he’s shown he can play at the level and he knows what he needs to improve on.

Josh Green
Josh - I love the Tasmanians. He’s got to get to that level of fitness. He’s very clean at ground level. He’s got speed and he’ll give us that speed that we’ve probably been lacking the past couple of years. He can play at half-forward, he can play inside, he can play in the pocket so he’s got a bit of flexibility about him.

Pearce Hanley
Pearce had a great year. He played 22 games and had his best season for the footy Club. He’s a great story this year. If he can continue on with his improvement there’s no doubt he can be a similar player to Tadgh Keneally - he’s the same mould.

Ryan Harwood
One of the great midfield decision-makers out of congestion. Needs to improve his fitness. It’ll be the make or break for whether Ryan becomes an elite midfielder, his fitness - being able to run a greater 3km time trial.

James Hawksley
Hawksley came in and out, but when he got his last chance he really made some inroads to play at the AFL standard. He has a very good overhead mark, he improved his contested footy and if he can continue to do that then he’ll push for consistent senior selection next year.

Patrick Karnezis
He’s the new cult figure in the forward line - look out Browny. He averaged two goals a game which is extraordinary for a first-year player. He’ll go on and get stronger - he’s that Stevie Johnson style where he knows where the ball’s going to go as a forward. He’s great before the opposition defenders and he’ll be around for a long time I think.

Ryan Lester
He’s a beauty. We didn’t see much of his this year which was disappointing. He’s a leader in his own right. You know he’ll turn up and play. He’s good overhead, brave, can play third tall in the forward line or third tall down back. One day he’ll move into the midfield.

Matthew Leuenberger
We need another one of him as well. Leuey really started to take hold of the ruck position this year. He showed the attributes that we all knew he had, and he’s starting to believe in it. The ruckman is one of the most damaging players in the league at the moment.

Matt Maguire
He took over Rog’s role really well when he got injured. He played on some really dangerous players and at times it was difficult. But he bounced back and played his best footy the last four weeks. We hope he can keep developing and hold down the spine of the footy Club.

Ash McGrath
We need two of Ash. We want him down back and we want him up forward because he’s such a potent player in the modern game. He’s got speed, skill. He’s versatile - he can play on talls and smalls so if he can string his season together next year then he could go All Australian.

Niall McKeever
What a great story. Who would move 12,000kms to play Aussie Rules when you’ve never picked up a footy? If I was still a player, I’d love to play with Niall. He’s brave, he’ll go back with the flight of the ball, and he’s a team player. We’ve just got to improve his speed to foot, to get the ball to a teammate, because sometimes he can get pressured from behind. But he’s improved on that already and we’ve got high hopes for Niall. He can go for long minutes, and can play on all the key talls down back, and small periods in the ruck to fill that void for us.

Daniel Merrett
It’s the bookends, isn’t it? We lost Browny and we lost Daniel Merrett. They’re the first two you pick in the side. He’s got speed and was winning the B&F up to round 14 I think. He was having a great season and that stress fracture in his back has now healed, so he’ll do a full pre-season and we can’t wait for him to come back.

Jesse O’Brien
He’s a long runner, but he needs to build his size. He’s got to improve his loose ball gets. He runs for that wide uncontested mark but we want him to get more of his own footy and he’ll develop that over time. We think his best position is wing/half-forward.

Joel Patfull
Joel played on the most dangerous player every week pretty much. He doesn’t get a lot of possessions but he may move into a tagging/midfield role next year. He’s a low maintenance player who you know will get the job done every week. He just needs to get a few more possessions.

Jared Polec
Jared came in for his first year and played in the NAB Cup and played three games. He just needs to develop on his body size. We know he’s going to be a good player, it’s just going to take time.

James Polkinghorne
Polks moved into the midfield more this year. He plays that small marking forward, and we know he can do that job, but we want him to become a 22-possession midfielder and he’s still got to work on that. He had some games where he got 22 and he had some where he got 16. So we need to fill that void.

Luke Power
Lukey played 20 games and played at half forward and wing, he had that flexibility for us. Lukey played his role really well during the year.

Andrew Raines
Rainesy took on the tagging role and did a great job for us. He took some really good opposition players out of the game, and does get the footy himself. We’ll continue down that road with Rainesy to make sure that he gets the job done. His decision making ability has improved this year.

Jack Redden
He’s the baby-faced assassin with white line fever. You wouldn’t know how aggressive he is just walking through the corridors, but he’s one of our hardest players. We love Jack. He’s good overhead with his marking, he’s good at winning inside footy - he’s probably just got to improve his kicking.

Bryce Retzlaff
Retzlaff is a third tall key position player. He’s really good on the lead - leads up at the kicker and presents really well but he needs to improve his contested mark. He knows that. He’s a really professional young kid and we know next pre-season he’ll do all those things to make sure he’s got the tools to be an elite centre half-forward of the competition.

Daniel Rich
Richy improved his fitness. The sub rule made it harder for Richy because he had to improve his fitness. But we’re starting to see that he can be a really elite midfielder of the competition through certain games he played during the year. The fitness still needs work but we know that his kicking skills and decision making - there’s not too many better than him in the game.

Tom Rockliff
Rock won the Club Champs. He is one of the best decision-makers in the AFL. He’s not the speediest but takes the decision, doesn’t kick the ball long with penetration but what he does do is that he hits an open player to make sure that that next player is the most dangerous player in our chain to score. He’s a really important player - went from wing and played inside. He’s a leader and we think he’ll continue to improve.

Sam Sheldon
Sammy came on this year and played 16 games. He’s a guy that put pressure on in the forward line which is really important in the modern game. He keeps his feet and is starting to kick a few goals, so he’s just got to keep with his development and get stronger.

Brent Staker
The ‘heartbreaker’ was unfortunately breaking other things this year. He’s going to need a total knee reconstruction. He’s one of the most important players on our list at the moment - he’s tall, he can play forward or back or a bit in the ruck. It’s going to be hard to replace him in 2012.

Cheynee Stiller
Cheynee is low maintenance. You know he’s going to get the job done. He’s brave, he’ll go back with the flight of the ball. He can play long minutes, which you have to do in defence. He came on and was a strong contributor to that defensive six consistently.