BRISBANE Lions Assistant Coach Justin Leppitsch believes a new coaching style under Michael Voss will give the Lions a fresh chance to break a five-year hoodoo against the Sydney Swans this Saturday night.

The Lions have not defeated the Swans since round, 2004 but a youthful outfit with a first year coach at the helm might be all the impetus they need to finally get a win.

“It’s a new game plan … We’ve got a new coach and we’ve changed our game plan considerably because of that”, Leppitsch said, adding that a specific style of play was not being adopted just for the Swans.

“They’ll see us a young group that they can probably try and bully around and intimidate.

“It’s going to be a challenge for us to be able to work as a team, to create space for each other.”

“I think they’re elite at that competitive, one-on-one style of game and I think last week proved – when they started to get back to the old Sydney game of clamping down – they become a very good side.”

One obvious area of concern for the Lions coaching staff has been costly lapses that saw West Coast grab a sizeable lead in round one, and Carlton establish a match-winning break in round two.

The second quarter has seen the Lions scoring a combined four goals to the oppositions’ 11 over the first two rounds.

By comparison, the Lions third quarters have yielded 9.3 against the Eagles and 6.2 against Carlton, but Leppitch believes the issue pre-dates Voss’ time as senior coach.

“It was a problem last year for us that we fall away in patches throughout the game. I don’t think we played one four-quarter game last season so it’s not a new problem for Vossy … it’s just growing the maturity of the group.”

“It might be individual things for different people,” Leppitsch said, “but whatever happens I think it’s generally a mental lapse, not a physical one.”