Losing a player of Jonathan Brown’s calibre on the eve of the season has set Lions Senior Coach Michael Voss a new challenge to find suitable replacements capable of filling the void in the team’s forward structure.

Fortunately the NAB Cup pre-season competition has enabled Voss to trial a few different players to determine what mix will ultimately provide the best solution for the Club in the opening weeks of the regular season.

The plan is only short-term, however, with Brown expected back on the field as early as Round 3.

“When you’re missing someone like Browny, you’ve got to do a lot of work,” Voss said.

“But you’ve got to put (Brown’s injury) in a bit of context - we’re looking at a two-week strategy here, not an 18-week strategy.”

“We’re looking for something that can help us start the season off alright and see where we go from there. It’s only early days, but we’ll certainly keep throwing guys through there.”

“(Aaron) Cornelius, (Jordan) Lisle, (Ryan) Lester and (Bryce) Retzlaff played there at different stages (on Saturday night). I thought Retzy showed some really good fighting qualities, and really presented a lot - and that’s what we’re after for our forward line.”

“We had Niall McKeever up there also at different times, so there’s a fair bit there to have a look at.”

Despite suffering a 51-point loss at the hands of Adelaide, Voss maintained that his team had used the opening two weeks of the pre-season competition to trial some new ideas.

“You have to be fairly realistic - we’re in Round 2 of the NAB Cup,” Voss said when questioned about his team’s performance.

“Right now it’s all about being able to look and see what works and what doesn’t work.”

“We had a very young team in there (against the Crows), (some of whom) are being exposed to AFL footy for the first time.”

“Almost everyone on our list has played over the past two weeks, so we’ve had a good look at a lot of different players to see where they’re at.”

“We’ve still got a couple of weeks to go in the NAB Cup, which means we’ll probably start picking our strongest side possible from here on in."