- Brisbane Lions stars have hit the ground running
- In preseason block before the Christmas holidays
- Seeking another AFL premiership in 2025
Veteran Brisbane defender Ryan Lester has declared the Lions will relish the challenge of being the team everyone wants to beat when they chase back-to-back AFL flags in 2025.
Lester, 32, won the premiership this year and was a reward for his patience after making his debut in 2011.
Chris Fagan’s men celebrated as they did after the club’s first goal. grand final since 2003, but pre-season training has been anything but accommodating.
“It’s a long season and there’s still two or three months to go, but we’ve got to do the right things now and create the right habits now,” Lester said Wednesday.
‘(Just) because we got the result this year, it’s not about taking shortcuts and licking the pats on the back that you get.
‘It’s about continually doing the right things, and with the culture that we’ve built here, and that took us a long time to build, we want to maintain it.
Brisbane Lions defender Ryan Lester has stated his team will relish the challenge of chasing back-to-back AFL flags in 2025.
Lester, 32, won the premiership this year and was a reward for patience after making his debut in 2011 and making more than 200 appearances for the Lions.
‘We are very fortunate with the environment we have, so we have to continue to take advantage of it, and that is what we have been doing.
“We are very excited for what is to come in 2025.”
Collectively, a top-four finish is what the group of players are striving to achieve next season.
They fell short of that target in 2024, with a fifth-place finish on the AFL ladder, meaning they had to walk the tightrope of sudden death for the entire four-week finals series.
“I feel really motivated to finish in the top four, and that’s the feeling I get among all the guys,” Lester added.
“We have always strived to earn the respect of the competition and little by little we have achieved it.
“Now we want to be a team that is up there challenging again and again.”
If the Lions are to win back-to-back premierships, it will be without star forward Joe Daniher, who retired following Brisbane’s 60-point rout in September’s Sydney grand final at the MCG.
To help fill the void left by Daniher, the Lions recruited key forward Sam Day, who after 14 seasons and 155 senior games with the Gold Coast Suns, was released.
Big Joe has clearly moved on. “I’ll have to thank you if I can find it, I think it’s gone offline,” Day said in the Official website of the club.
‘Replace is an interesting word. I don’t know if we can ever replace Joe. “He was a very special athlete and very loved at the club.
“I never met him personally, but the way the kids talk about him, he was a very special guy to them.
“I’m looking forward to being my own player. Hopefully, I can come in and make the rest of the guys around me better.”