Brisbane Lions Vice Captain Jed Adcock has said that the team has great confidence following Saturday night’s performance against Fremantle and fans should expect big things from the younger generation of Lions.

The Lions produced outstanding performances from their three debutants in Ryan Lester, Rohan Bewick and Claye Beams, and in light of the significant injuries to skipper Jonathan Brown and key utility Brent Staker, Adcock believes that this is the perfect opportunity for other players to step up and fill those roles.

Adcock said that youngsters Aaron Cornelius and Bryce Retzlaff had been particularly impressive in the Lions Reserves and could well be placed to fill the roles left by Brown and Staker.

“Aaron has been playing well in the Reserves and he is definitely a good opportunity to come and take that role in the forward line, along with Bryce Retzlaff,” Adcock said.

“We are also hoping that Luke (Power) will step back in this week, and Matt Maguire looks a chance to be back in defence so that will definitely be a positive.”

Adcock praised the team’s attitude and resilience following the Lions’ two point loss on the weekend.

“It was disappointing, but to actually go out and play the way we wanted to play, but fall over at the end due to running out of legs is actually a positive to take from it,” Adcock said.

The Lions will face the Western Bulldogs this Sunday - a team who suffered a 55-point loss at the hands of Essendon in Round 1.

“I have no doubt, knowing Rocket (Bulldogs Senior Coach Rodney Eade), that they’ll be firing come this weekend,” Adcock said.

“It won’t be easy - we’ve already played them once in the pre-season and come away with a loss.”

“But we have come a mile since the pre-season game against them. We had a couple of really strong games against Melbourne and the Gold Coast, and then last week we played well and felt we probably should have won the match. We’ll definitely be competitive.”

The absence of Jonathan Brown will mean that Adcock and fellow defender Daniel Merrett will be the most senior members of the leadership group and will likely share the Captaincy duties.

“Browny is still our Captain and he’s a very influential player in the group. We all look up to him and will keep it going for the next few weeks until he comes back.”