HAVING played for the Brisbane Lions for over 10 years, I've got a handle on most of their side. Other than Matthew Leuenberger and Travis Johnstone, I've played with nearly all of them.

I've got a very good idea of individual players, but structures and strategies tend to change from year to year. Even then we've kept a pretty close eye on them during the pre-season games so we should be able to pick up any subtle changes from last season anyway.

We've been up to the Gold Coast a couple of times to see them play, and we've had people over watching them against West Coast, and they're a fairly formidable line-up.

In terms of their best 22, they've changed a fair bit since I was playing with them. A lot of the younger guys I saw come into the club are now in the Lions' best side so they're a much younger side now. That said, there's a lot of names that people know so well that are still there.

Simon Black, Jonathan Brown and Luke Power are all still there and playing good footy, so in that sense, their key players haven't changed too much.

The area we're most likely to be pushed in will be against their experienced midfield. They have players who have been very successful on both an individual and a team basis, and if they're winning a lot of the ball and supplying their forwards, we're going to find it difficult to control them.

They're potentially potent up forward now, and with Daniel Bradshaw returning from his knee reconstruction, he just adds a completely new dimension to their forward line rather than being so Jonathan Brown-focused.

The way we look at our young defenders being thrown another challenge is, and with my role as the opposition coach, there's a big name to counter every week. We've got Matthew Richardson round three, Brendan Fevola round four, Nathan Thompson round five and Matthew Lloyd round six.

Every single week, our defence is going to come up against a gun key forward, so you can't worry too much about that.

The weather up in Brisbane won't concern us. At this stage of the season, we've played in oppressive conditions a few times, and our trip to South Africa will be a great benefit to us there as well. We played two practice games in pretty significant heat, plus the NAB Cup game in Dubai.

Brisbane at this time of year, and being a night game, it might be a bit more humid than down here, but we don't anticipate it being a factor.

I think Collingwood-Brisbane games are always fixtures than stir the passions of both clubs. I know Brisbane enjoy playing Collingwood because they feel it's their opportunity to play against the biggest Melbourne club, and Collingwood certainly are building a rivalry with the Lions.

For me, it doesn't feel weird anymore with the two clubs playing each other. In terms of your passion as a player, you really put you heart and soul into it out on the field.

When you're a coach, a bit of the emotion is removed because you need to be able to think clearly and make strategic decisions. As a player, you're more emotionally involved, and you can get emotionally involved as a coach but it's probably detrimental if you do.

With Sean Rusling, we haven't had a full run-down yet on where he's at and we're really just waiting to see. He's obviously disappointed; he worked so hard to get himself back and he was probably the fittest he'd ever been and he was beginning to reap the rewards.

It's disappointing for him, and I reckon he's probably hurting more emotionally right now than physically.

To take a positive from his injury, we're really fortunate that we've had selection dilemmas the last two weeks, and even with Sean's absence, we've still got a lot of selection issues to work through.

It's a good position for us to be in. A lot of the work that's been done over the last two years with the young guys has put us in good stead there, and we've got some good players who'll be pushing hard for selection.

Scotty Burns will play this week, and he's dying to get out there. When the captain of the club becomes available to play and he's got enough match fitness, we don't hesitate in bringing him straight back in. He's an automatic inclusion.