Raines wants own history

Having grown up in Queensland as part of a famous football family, Andrew Raines has certainly been exposed to his fair share of AFL success – albeit second hand.

Raines was drafted to Richmond at the end of 2003 just weeks after watching the local Brisbane Lions secure an historic third successive AFL Premiership, while his father Geoff is a former Premiership player (1980) and three-time Best and Fairest winner (1978, 1980 and 1981) with the Tigers.

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Constantly reliving these former glories only makes Raines more determined to one day be part of a Lions team that creates its own history.  

“You can't help but notice the stuff around the Club, with the pictures, the photos of the great players who you looked up to,” Raines to The Age. “Especially for someone like me – I grew up here and watched (the Lions’) success pretty closely.”

“It's obviously in the back of our minds but I think we are trying to form our own identity,” he said.

“My previous football club, Richmond, they had success in the '70s and '80s when my old man played. I would always walk around and see the great names on the walls but I don't think it plays a huge part.”

“You are obviously educated about the history, which is important to know, but I think it's important to forge your own path, your identity. That's something the boys are trying to achieve at the moment.”

Raines also told The Age that one of the first steps in achieving that sort of success was restoring their home ground to the impenetrable fortress it used to be. 

“That is a big target for us, making the Gabba ours again.” Raines said.

“We lost some close games there last year where we could have won. If you can (win those), you get your confidence up and you can start winning a few on the road, which we did last year.”

“That will be a huge focus point.”