THE BENCHMARK team for so much of the NAB AFL Women’s 10-season history, you can expect Brisbane to evolve again in 2025.

Coming off a thumping 30-point loss in last year’s decider to North Melbourne, the Lions realised something had to change if they were to continue challenging, growing, and eventually dominating again.

Known as one of, if not the fittest teams in the competition, the past six months have been as much about skill as they have about will.

Don’t be mistaken, the Lions will again be a powerhouse athletic team, with many of their experienced hands (Bre Koenen, Ally Anderson, Sophie Conway and Orla O’Dwyer among a large batch) setting personal bests in the pre-season 2km time trial.

But for Craig Starcevich and his coaching staff, the focus has equally turned to skill development.

“Just to have a few more strings to our bow in terms of how we want to move the ball, that’s been a big focus,” the two-time premiership coach said.

“And having some different speeds when we need to.

“With our group, given their work ethic, they don’t need much coaxing to get into the physical side of things, but we wanted to try and balance that a bit more with how much touch they get, how much they’re thinking about the tactical side of things.

“We have a big batch of experience in our group now … there aren’t too many excuses in terms of game knowledge and skills.”

After earlier seasons of expansion ravaged the club’s playing stocks, Brisbane has been relatively settled the past two years.

Anderson, Koenen and Shannon Campbell could all reach the 100-game milestone this year, while Conway hits 75 against Hawthorn on Sunday.

She could be joined by a host of others on the same milestone throughout the year, including Nat Grider, Belle Dawes, Cathy Svarc, O’Dwyer, Jade Ellenger, Tahlia Hickie, Courtney Hodder, Dakota Davidson and Taylor Smith.

Conway was still smarting from the Grand Final loss to the Kangaroos, and is hungry for team improvement.

“We had a lot to get to work on, from a skill and fundamental point of view, which I think we’ve really honed in on,” she said.

“We say it every year, we’ve definitely come back fitter, but from a skill point of view we’ve turned it up a notch.

“If you don’t have the skills down pat, it can hurt you. It probably hurt us a bit in the Grand Final. We couldn’t get our ball movement happening.”

Starcevich expected it to be “clunky” to start with. He will continue to explore positional versatility this season and believes it could grow competition-wide.

Koenen has evolved from one of the competition’s best intercepting defenders, to someone that can impact in the midfield. Ellenger has moved from the wing to a running defender. Svarc from a bullish midfielder to a damaging half-forward.

“I think the competition is evolving now so that we’re going to have slightly different line-ups for different opponents,” Starcevich said.

“That’s something we’re talking about as a coaching group, and the players are aware as well.”

For Conway, the pre-season has continued to build on a culture the Lions have created since day-dot under Starcevich, head of women’s footy Bree Brock, and head of high performance Matt Green.

“I love coming in to the club each and every day,” she said.

“The coaching staff look to get better, we look to get better. It’s an environment you want to continue to succeed in.”