BRISBANE has a dual Brownlow Medal winner, a dual Norm Smith Medal winner, multiple All-Australians and game-winners on every line.

Yet perhaps the player with the most influence since the club’s remarkable rise, and then sustained success, over the past decade is Ryan Lester.

On the surface, that seems a reach, but speak to anyone inside the Lions and they will have nothing but love for Lester, who will run out for his 250th career game on Friday night against Hawthorn.

Whether speaking to 20-year-old Ty Gallop, 37-year-old brother-in-law Dayne Zorko, or anyone in between, Brisbane players have Lester on a pedestal making him the most popular man at the club.

He was drafted in 2010, watched the 'Go Home Five' depart three years later and has ridden every bit of the Lions rollercoaster since, including playing in the past two premierships.

Lester was dropped 17 times in his career and has famously been signing one-year contracts for most of the past decade, yet as football manager Danny Daly told AFL.com.au, his attitude never wavered.

"He's the calmest and most influential player that's been across our time," Daly, who joined the Lions in 2014, said.

"He was a massive reason for setting the culture. He's the one everyone looked up to in our first seven or eight years.

"He was in and out of the team. Some players moan and groan about not getting picked … he never questioned that.

"He understood, went back and played his role at VFL level and he always helped others to become better players and people.

"Regardless of whether he thought he should have been in or not, he never showed that to anyone. He just helped them and got on with it.

"It's never about him."

Lester has always had a reputation for having an influence on the club's younger players.

He spent most of 2022 in the VFL and was made captain the following year in the reserves, before getting into the senior team in round seven and never looking back.

In an interview in 2024, Cam Rayner described the impact Lester has had on the club’s younger players.

"Every single person that came through here as an 18-year-old would have spent multiple times at this house," Rayner said.

"He's one of those people that genuinely cares about you and really wants to know about you and checks in about your family.

"When he wasn't playing in the ones, there were people playing ahead of him, but he was still taking them for extra touch and watching vision with them, even if it put his spot in jeopardy.

"When you see someone with an attitude like that, it speaks volumes about him. As a person and player, he's one of the most trustworthy people out there, so it's pretty easy to see why people love him."

One of those youngsters is Gallop, who after playing as a forward in last year’s premiership, has swung back into defence this season.

Lester has helped his growth on-field, but it’s the off-field relationships that has grown.

"I connect with him over movies," Gallop smiled.

"He's a bit of a movie guy. He loves watching and rating movies and I’ve started doing a bit of that this year as well.

"We saw Odyssey last week. It’s pretty good. I think we agreed on a nine out of 10.

"It's not just that, but stuff he does away from the club as well. He’s got another job outside the club and that’s inspiring to me to start chasing what you’re going to do after footy.

"He does a very good job of finding connections with people and then following up on it and trying to build a stronger connection."

Speaking ahead of his milestone, the versatile defender was as humble as ever.

Coach Chris Fagan said Lester was playing the best football of his life, to which the Victorian agreed.

"I was sure 150 was going to be my last milestone, then I was certain that 200 was going to be my last milestone and I’d nearly put the house that 250 will be my last milestone," he said.

"The last few years have been a bit of a dream.

"My last three or four years I think I’ve been a different player to what I was the first 12 years of my career, and every year I feel like I’ve been able to add something small to my game that has helped me."

Lester will turn 34 later in August and is "95 per cent sure" he will play on in 2027.

"I don’t want to play a year too many because where we are as a club, I think we need to start slowly drip-feeding some older guys out of the club because we’ve got so much young talent coming through," he said.

"That's in the back of my mind, but this year I think I've shown that I've played better than I probably ever have, so might as well keep doing that while I can."