With Jonathan Brown in the twilight of his AFL career, the Brisbane Lions have spent the past few years trying to develop a succession plan for when the Co-Captain eventually decides to hang up the boots.

But finding a full-time replacement is no easy task.

Quality key forwards are a rare breed in the AFL, which explains why they often command such big dollars.

The speculative offers surrounding Hawthorn free agent Lance Franklin is a prime example of the lengths that some clubs will go to in order to secure a reliable spearhead in attack.

Good key forwards simply don't grow on trees, so when a promising young key position prospect emerges from the junior ranks, they are generally snapped up early in the draft process.

Even then there are no guarantees that they will go on to forge long and successful careers.

Lions Talent Manager Rob Kerr says finding a long-term replacement for Brown is high on the recruiting team’s priority list.

“We obviously have to factor in what the forward line is going to look like post-Jonathan Brown, (but) key forwards are the hardest things to find,” Kerr told Dom Fay and Michael Whiting as part of this week’s insightful Fancast.

“If you look at where key forwards have been drafted from, it’s very rare that you find a good AFL key forward who wasn’t taken in the first 20 or so picks.

“I think Kurt Tippett is one exception and was drafted a little later, and I think Sydney’s Sam Reid was either late 20s or early 30s.

“Other than that, most of them are taken in the top 10 (picks). There are also a lot of key forwards who are taken but don’t quite step up and make the grade because it’s probably the hardest position you have to play, or at least the hardest role for a tall to fill.”

As Kerr suggests, history has shown that most of the competition’s best current-day key forwards were first-round draftees, including; Nick Riewoldt (Pick No.1 in 2000), Jarryd Roughead (Pick No.2 in 2004), Josh Kennedy (Pick No.4 in 2005), Franklin (Pick No.5 in 2004), and Jack Riewoldt (Pick No.13 in 2006).

Travis Cloke, Tom Hawkins and Brown were all drafted under the father/son rule, while GWS were given priority access to pre-list young gun forward Jeremy Cameron.

Finding a ready-made key forward in the State Leagues has proven even more difficult, with Geelong’s James Podsiadly one of the very few success stories.

“We’ve gone and looked at State Leagues over the last few years and we’ll continue to look at State Leagues this year, but with the modern system and the way that talent is developed, your best opportunity to find a genuine key forward prospect is through the Draft,” Kerr said.

“That’s not to say that someone doesn’t bob up from a State League club, but history says that’s pretty rare.”

The Lions also remain hopeful that one or more of Club’s current crop of developing key forward prospects – including Jordan Lisle, Aaron Cornelius, Michael Close, Sam Michael and Jordon Bourke – can emerge as a long-term proposition.