JOEL Patfull will be hoping it’s a case of second time lucky when the Brisbane Lions line up against his old side Port Adelaide on Saturday night.

The 22-year-old, who spent 2003 and 2004 on the Power’s rookie list, enjoyed a dream debut against Port at AAMI Stadium in round eight last year, scoring a goal with his first kick in AFL football in a 69-point Lions victory.

“It ended up being a pretty good first game to play in and a really good win – hopefully we can do the same over here,” Patfull said.

“We played some great footy that day and a lot of the same guys will be down there (in the forward line) on Saturday night.”

Of course, one player who won’t be there is Daniel Bradshaw, out for the season with a knee injury.

Bradshaw and Jonathan Brown combined for 13 goals last time out against the Power and Patfull realises the rest of the forward line must work to cover for the absence of the two-time leading goalkicker.

Like most in the Lions camp, he thinks a drought-breaking win is within reach.

“Braddy has been a huge loss for us – apart from being a great player himself, he takes the focus away from Browny and stops other teams zoning off,” Patfull said.

“Whoever else is out there just has to do their best to offer a target and keep other teams from double and triple-teaming Browny.

“The last few weeks, the feeling amongst the group has been pretty good, but things haven’t quite been going our way.

“Earlier in the year, there were a couple of games we lost narrowly when we didn’t take advantage of our opportunities. We’ve got to make the most of them now.”

Although he is yet to taste finals action at the half-way point of his second season at the Gabba, Patfull believes his football is far advanced from where it was when he left Norwood at the end of 2005.

He has also enjoyed the famous Queensland weather – until the freezing temperatures of the last week at least.

“I’ve been a bit worried about the weather the last week and I much prefer the sunshine – it’s been a bit like in Adelaide in winter,” he laughed.

“The 15 games or so I got under my belt last year have helped me massively and being able to play regularly this year has helped me again.

“Playing so much has made me a lot more confident about my footy.”