AS MUCH as Brisbane Lions skipper Breanna Koenen “hates” losing quality players from her team’s list, she concedes it is for the greater good of the AFL Women’s competition. The Lions will be minus the likes of Emily Bates, Greta Bodey and Jesse Wardlaw in Season 8, but it provides last year’s grand finalists with a “silver lining”.

“I think we were becoming too predictable potentially, and it gives those younger girls a really good opportunity to be able to step up,” Koenen said. “I think if anything it’s a backhanded compliment to us that we have a really good program and we can develop young players and upcoming players to be really good.”

Brisbane will bring in a stack of fresh faces, with two arriving in the past month in former Central District and Southport midfielder/forward Caitlin Wendland and University of Queensland sharpshooter Brooke Sheridan coming in as injury replacement players.

“I think given everything we’ve got a quite a loud, exciting group,” Koenen said. “For them, especially as younger players, to step in and take it in their stride and just embrace it, it has been really impressive for those girls and I think they fit really well into our group. I know everybody gets around them and encourages and supports them and hopefully they feel like they’re at home now.”

Another big inclusion is young gun Lily Postlethwaite who has recovered off her second anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury and is ready to fire in Season 8.

“She is one of the most diligent people in her prep, her rehab,” Koenen said. “Everything she does is really professional, she’s done really well to get to where she is. She’s played in the last few practice matches and a fair few match sim throughout the preseason so far. She’s a really impressive just calm, composed player. She’ll be a massive in for us.”

Brisbane fell one win short of a second flag in three seasons, when the Lions went down to Melbourne in the decider. Despite the loss, Koenen is optimistic that the group could take plenty from the defeat.

“That last game of the season was a bit of a disappointment but obviously reviewed that, learnt a lot from it,” Koenen said. “We’ve just got to move on, we’ve got a very different look to our group this year which I think will be a good thing. A nice refresh and a lot of different roles for different people so I think a lot of the girls will step up given the opportunity.”

Koenen herself ended the day with a knee injury, and though she has been able to recover and return “stronger and fitter than ever” admits it was a “tough” day not being able to influence the match as much. Heading into Season 8, the Lions will call the grand final venue – Brighton Homes Arena in Springfield – home.

“The biggest thing is now it’s really fast, quick deck,” Koenen said. “On the grand final it was quite slow, but now it’s massive, it’s huge, it’s fast, it suits the way we want to play so we’re looking to make that a real fortress going forward.”

The Lions skipper is not setting the bar any lower in Season 8, with finals on the agenda for Brisbane, while continuing her own personal form into 2023.

“For the team we always want to make finals, we want to do the best we can and be competitive with everyone,” Koenen said. “That’s probably the biggest thing going forward, it’s step-by-step process to get to that last game it’s a long way, but we’ll take it game-by-game. For myself personally, I had a pretty good season last year so I just want to back that up.”