ALL-AUSTRALIAN candidate and emerging Brisbane Lions star Jed Adcock says he will target improved endurance as he looks to build on a career-best 2007.
Adcock, one of three Lions in a 40-man All-Australian shortlist announced on Tuesday, made the move from defence to midfield mid-way through the season and finished with an average of almost 21 possessions a game.
The 21-year-old will now challenge himself to produce the kind of aerobic feats for which teammate Simon Black is well known.
“Probably the main thing I’ll be working on is endurance,” Adcock said.
“I’m not too far from where I have to be. Having a full pre-season really helped me this year and I was really fit going into the season.
“But I do need to pick up the endurance a bit and just make sure my body stays intact, as it did this year when I played every game. Last year I only played eight.”
Not only is Adcock aiming to take his game to another level again in 2008, but he also believes he and his similarly-aged teammates must pick up more of the leadership slack.
The Lions have a cluster of players around the 50-game experience mark – including Jared Brennan, Richard Hadley, Joel Macdonald, Daniel Merrett and Troy Selwood – and 54-gamer Adcock says they must help guide youngster graduating to senior ranks.
Two vastly experienced players were lost to the club on the weekend when Chris Johnson and Chris Scott played their final AFL games against Geelong.
“We need to get more involved in leadership – not only on-field but off-field too,” Adcock said.
“The 22- and 23-year-olds need to step up now and show the way for the young guys - the first and second year guys coming through.
“Everyone knows what Jonathan Brown, Nigel Lappin, Luke Power and Simon Black can do but it is up to us to show the way as well.”
Adcock, who has taken on responsibility of organising the playing group’s off-season trip, said the Lions should be enthused about the second half of the just completed campaign, in which they won five and drew another of the last nine games.
But he cautioned against over-enthusiasm, given the Lions went seven weeks without a win prior to the season-turning round 14 upset of West Coast at Subiaco.
“Looking back we should have won a couple more games than we did, but that’s in the past and we can’t change it,” he said.
“We learned from our mistakes and played some really good footy in the second half of the year.
“It is disappointing not to be playing finals but, looking towards the future, things are very positive.
“We’ve been able to beat the third, fourth, fifth and sixth teams and lost by a goal to the team that’s second.
“We were really competitive and hopefully we can improve further on that next year.”
Also named in the All-Australian shortlist were gun centre half-forward and Coleman medalist Jonathan Brown and ultra-consistent midfielder Nigel Lappin.
Brown booted a career-best 77 goals, while Lappin bounced back from more than a year out with a leg injury to average 26.8 possessions a game – the best mark of his illustrious career.
Lappin’s long-time midfield collaborator Simon Black was something of a surprise omission from the shortlist.
