AFL rising star winner Lewis Taylor is confident he can avoid the second-year blues.
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The Brisbane Lions small forward is eager to build on the breakout campaign which defied an injury-impacted pre-season and catapulted him to instant cult status.
Taylor, 20, will line up against Collingwood in Brisbane’s season-opener at the Gabba tonight.
“My goals are to play consistent footy and do all the right things at training and hopefully play all 22 games again as well,” he said.
The Terang Mortlake export wants to help the Lions turn their pre-season hype into a winning start.
Brisbane will unveil off-season signings — premiership stars Dayne Beams (Collingwood) and Allen Christensen (Geelong) and Carlton hardnut Mitch Robinson — as part of its new-look midfield.
Taylor said the star-studded onball brigade would help the Lions’ fleet-footed forward line.
“With Beams and Christensen coming in we have a pretty good midfield at the moment,” he said.
“I am happy to give them a chop out when they need it.
“But I will mostly be forward with Greeny (Josh Green) and Zorks (Dayne Zorko), running amok.”
Brisbane won seven games in Taylor’s first season to finish 15th.
But morale is high following the influx of new players, coupled with the development of its promising list.
Taylor said the Lions were excited to launch their 2015 campaign against one of the competition’s biggest clubs.
“It’s a huge game, Saturday night, Easter weekend,” he said of the game against the Magpies.
“I am pretty sure general admission has sold out but I think it’s meant to be wet so that might dull the crowd a bit.
“But hopefully we can get 20,000 or 30,000 there, that’d be good.
“There is a good feeling around the club — we are beating our membership (from last year) and there are definitely people getting behind us.
“We have some pretty winnable games early I think so hopefully we hit our straps early.”
Taylor said he was enjoying the Brisbane lifestyle, felt comfortable at the Lions and had a girlfriend named Tayla — a name which gives his teammates plenty of ammunition for jokes.
