The Brisbane Lions’ next wave of leaders will shoulder a greater level of responsibility in 2015 following the departure of five of the Club’s nine most experienced players during the off-season.

The Lions lost a combined total of 941 senior AFL games by farewelling Jonathan Brown, Ash McGrath, Joel Patfull, Brent Moloney and Andrew Raines – leaving Captain Jed Adcock (185 games) as the team’s most experienced player.

Brent Staker (154 games) is now officially the oldest player at the Club having turned 30 in May last year, with Matt Maguire (168 games) and Daniel Merrett (171) the only other players to have reached the big 3-0.

Rounding out the top five most experienced players at the Club is Jack Redden (112 games), who only turned 24 in December last year.

Redden is just one of an impressive quartet of 24-year-old’s at the Lions, along with Dayne Beams (110 games), Tom Rockliff (101 games), and Daniel Rich (101 games), who are all set to play a key role in the Club’s future.

The only other players at the Lions to have reached the 100-game milestone are Luke McGuane (108 games) and recent free agency signing Mitch Robinson (100 games) – however Pearce Hanley (96 games) and Matthew Leuenberger (94 games) should notch up that milestone early in 2015.

Meanwhile, Staker has inherited Brown’s long-held position as the Club’s leading career goal-kicker with 119 goals during his time with both the Lions and West Coast, while Collingwood recruit Beams is just one shy with 118.

In terms of most goals kicked for the Lions colours – that honour goes to small forward Josh Green who has booted 72 goals from his 54 career matches.

In fairness, the Lions went a long way to ensuring there was no heavy reliance on one or two players in 2014, particularly considering spiritual leader Brown retired midway through the season, and all of McGrath, Moloney and Raines only managed a handful of games.

It helped better prepare that next batch of players to assume the type of leadership role they will have to become more accustomed to from 2015 and beyond.