Firstly, welcome to the start of another huge year from us at Footy Tragic – hopefully you have been enjoying the content so far!

Today I am having a look at the Brisbane lions – a side with a fair few potential Dream Team and SuperCoach options across all price ranges.

Firstly, their draw is pretty reasonable – they play the Pies and Geelong only once each (both in the first seven rounds), then Gold Coast twice, GWS once, Port once… So it’s pretty fair, without being either poor or amazing. Where their fixture does look good is for byes – they have their bye in round 11 along with Adelaide, GWS, North, West Coast and Western Bulldogs – certainly the least scary of the three killer bye weeks. This means that having a few Lions in your side won’t be particularly harmful, unless if you plan to load up on any of the other five teams too.

As I touched on earlier, Brisbane have a number of good fantasy options in all price ranges and have a very good young midfield who should only continue to improve, with the likes of Redden, Rockliff and Rich all still in their early 20’s. They also like to implement a high-possession brand of football, which is obviously great for Dream Team and SuperCoach purposes. As for rookies, there are a few likely to get a run in the seniors in 2012, but Vossy proved in 2011 that they really need to show consistent form to get a proper run in the seniors – a bit of a worry. Also, more often than not, Brisbane handed the sub vest to a player of less than 20 games experience.

 

KEY PLAYERS:

 

Jonathan Brown:

Brown’s biggest drawcard to coaches will surely be his price, as well as his known potential. Brown’s best puts him alongside the game’s elite and he has a very high fantasy ceiling. The cons for selecting him however, are unfortunately unavoidable – whilst his brutality and attack on the football is an apparent asset, it caused him two pretty horrific facial injuries in 2011, which kept him sidelined for most of the year. The bonus from this though is the fact he has kept his old body from the field for nearly a full year, rejuvenating him immensely – he is now having one of his best pre-seasons in memory.

Personally, I still worry about Brown’s durability – he has only played two full seasons in the past 10 years, with an average of 16.5 games a year within that time, meaning he has missed an average of 5.5 games per year.

Expect him to start well thanks to his good pre-season, so if you like him, get him early. The concern will just be how long he lasts. Though, at that sort of coin, it makes the risks somewhat less.

 

Pearce Hanley:

Hanley played his first full season for the Lions in 2011 and had a really positive year. He played as a running defender, being used frequently for runs from defence due to his athleticism and fantastic boot.  He is somewhat of a smokey option for a true breakout season in 2012.

Hanley has spent a lot of his pre-season training split between both the defence group and the midfield group, which is a positive sign, although I expect we will mostly see him off half-back this year. The main thing restricting him from taking his game to a new level is how defensively he will be made to play in 2012. In 2011, Adcock played that defensive role (much to everyone’s dismay) later in the year, allowing Hanley much more freedom in the backline. Whether he is allowed the same role in 2012 is yet to be seen, but I expect he will, especially if Golby can establish himself in the side as that shutdown defender.

Keep an eye on his pre-season form and if he looks quite good, he could be a great point of difference, capable of the odd big score, but also importantly very consistent.

 

Matthew Leuenberger:

Big Leuey will surely be one of the most selected players in 2012, in both Dream Team and SuperCoach. It has taken us a few years to see Leauy really establish himself, but in 2012 we saw what he is capable of doing. Whilst the coaching staff played around with him in various roles early in the year (mainly up forward), they gave in to the fact he is a ruckman first and foremost and gave him the first ruck position for the remainder of the year.

He averaged 103 DT and 121 SC points over the last nine games of the season, which goes to show what he is capable of on a consistent basis. Whilst he is priced at 92/101, I believe the former numbers are the ones we are much more likely to expect from him in 2012.

It is interesting to note that whilst Leuey was often injured earlier in his career, he is now the 2nd most durable ruckman (behind Cox), having played 44 consecutive games.

The only concern I have over Leuenberger going into 2012 is the fact he may not be the sole ruckman in the team each week, with Ben Hudson being drafted to the club in the off-season. Personally I am of the belief that he was only brought in as insurance should Leuey go down, but still the concern is there that Hudson could play and take valuable game-time away from him. Anyway, this will be another important thing to monitor through the NAB cup.

 

OTHERS TO CONSIDER:

 

Tom Rockliff:

Rocky has been a prolific ball-winner for a couple of seasons now, but took his game to an all-new level in 2011, averaging 112 DT and 114 SC per game. So far he is training well and has been continuing to improve his fitness base this pre-season. Looks set for another massive year.

Daniel Rich:

Rich has done very little with his football career since winning the Rising Star award in his debut year, but many are saying the penny seems to have dropped for him this pre-season. He is working much harder on the track, improving his fitness base to be much closer to where it should be at AFL level. A new, determined attitude also won’t go astray.

Another positive could be the form of Rockliff and Redden around him – Rich has copped the #1 tag most weeks for the past two years, so with more attention likely to be given to his teammates, we may see him given more freedom to step up.

Jack Redden:

Redden was Dan’s prediction for a breakout season in 2011 and he was proven very right, with Redden having an absolute ripper of a year. He is a brilliant clearance player, but also has a knack of working hard and getting the ball outside the packs too. Totally capable of adding to his already lofty average in both competitions. Could be great having a premium midfielder missing in the first bye week too – easily the softest of all the bye rounds.

Dayne Zorko:

Zorko is a mature aged recruit, capable of playing either midfield or forward. My gut feel is that he will play closer to goals than the midfield, allowing the likes of Banfield to play a bit higher. He has been a star in the NEAFL competition, winning four consecutive B&F awards. He usually plays a high-pressure forward role and is good at chasing and laying tackles – then kicking some nice goals (he finished with 12 goals in one game). He is base priced and dual position, so you would want a pretty good excuse for not considering him!

For more info, read Dan’s recent article on him here.

Jordan Lisle:

Lisle was another off-field acquisition for the Lions and so far he has been training well in the forwards group. He is fairly priced and could get some opportunities, although I do worry about his security with the likes of Retzlaff and Cornelius both competing for the same role. If he shines in the NAB cup though, he would have to be looked at.

 

Injury Room:

Sam Docherty is the main player on the sidelines, nursing a hip injury. He is still not in the main group and is unlikely to join them before the NAB cup. Josh Drummond is also in the recovery group with a hip injury, but not far from rejoining the rest of his teammates. Brent Staker will miss the year with a knee reconstruction.

 

TOBY’S BEST 22:

FB: Jed Adcock, Daniel Merrett, Mitch Golby

HB: Pearce Hanley, Niell McKeever, Josh Drummond

C: Daniel Rich, Simon Black, Ryan Harwood

HF: Todd Banfield, Jordan Lisle, Patrick Karnezis

FF: Dayne Zorko, Jonathan Brown, Ash McGrath

R: Matthew Leuenberger, Jack Redden, Tom Rockliff

INT: Callum Bartlett, Ryan Lester, Jesse O’Brien, Aaron Cornelius

 

EMER: James Polkinghorne, Jared Polec, Bryce Retzlaff