Thanks to rysmith who has done the Brisbane season review.

It’s been a trying year for the Lions, as soon as Brown’s head collided with McPharlin’s knee late in the third qtr of Round 1, not only did his face shatter so too did the spirit of his teammates and supporters along with it. The season was long and injury plagued but despite that there were still plenty of positives to take out of the growing list of players trying to find their feet without their maestro. Close losses to 3 of the top 4 sides Collingwood, Geelong and West Coast in the final rounds of the season gave fans some hope that the future might not be as bleak as many might first have thought.

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GOOD:

Leuenberger, the club has had high hopes on the young ruckmen for a few years now but after getting over some massive injuries, including a staph infection, the Brissie big man is finally starting to live up to those expectations. Leuenbergers’ supercoach average was 105.26 for the year finishing 2nd in the AFL with 724 hit outs, which we all know is a huge scoring stat especially if they are to the advantage. He finished the year strong averaging 126.6 over the last 10 rounds and at the tender age of 23 you can assume that there is still a lot of improvement in him yet. I think a number of teams will be looking to have him as a lock in for their 1st or 2nd Ruck next year or at least they should be.

Rockliff or should I say the ‘magnet’ has averaged 28 disposals a game with a S.C average of 114.05, cracking the ton 16 times throughout the season. His top score came in round 23 against the narrow loss at home to the Eagles with a massive score of 179. The young gun is the future of the Lions midfield and it’s just a matter of time before he starts copping a hard tag which could hurt his scores, but like swan he seems to just have a huge motor and keeps accumulating kick after kick. I believe he is on the road to becoming one of the AFL top midfielders or more importantly a Supercoach scoring machine.

Redden is another one of the young Brissie midfield brigade to dramatically improve this year averaging 103.91 for the season and cranking out 120+ on 8 separate occasions. He also seems to rack up the possessions, so often throughout the year you would see him picking up easy kicks on the wing with no one around. But who’s complaining, especially not the 9,292 people that had him. With a big pre-season in 2012 he could be a unique but effective pick for next year.

BAD:

Now with the lions finishing 15th on the ladder you would think there would be a heap, but with a developing list ,13 debutants and a number of injuries during the season it was hard, but a few still come to mind;

Mitch Clarke the home bound boy only cracked the ton once during the season, he has so much talent and after the 2009 season where he narrowly missed the All Australian selection in the Ruck with an average of 93.77 we all thought he would be a S.C star and kick on, but like the recently departed Brennan, he fails to deliver on a regular basis, especially when J.Brown is out for most of the year and the team is crying out for a fwd to stand up in his absence.

Old and injured players like Buchanan / X Clarke (Fev era) you wouldn’t think have too much more to contribute to a young developing team and could be on the chopping block also.



SMOKY:

Josh Drummond: If he has an injury free pre-season could be a smoky to fill your backline and with that super efficient left boot of his as he is capable of scoring big on a consistent basis. He will also be cheaper then most premiums as he was coming back late in the season from injury and we all know good backs are hard to find.

Overall Brissie is a team to watch in 2012 for supercoach bargains as their list is young and still developing and if the old heads in Brown and Black can have an injury free year and help get the team over the line more often then players like Lueneberger, Rockliff and Redden will benefit and more importantly our teams along with them.