Introducing your 2011 wooden spooners...ladies and gentlemen, the Brisbane Lions.

It says here that the Lions will be bringing up the rear of the AFL ladder this year, and there are several reasons why.

The coach

We're not all that convinced that Michael Voss can coach. We loved him intently as a player, weren't sure about him in the TV commentary box but now certainly have our reservations about him in the coaches box.

His personnel moves have been dreadful. The ill-fated recruitment of Brendan Fevola cost the Lions Lachlan Henderson and a first-round selection, while the fall-out cost them Daniel Bradshaw, Michael Rischitelli and Jared Brennan, the last two casualties of the burgeoning salary cap. That's five players who otherwise, would be walk up starts in his best 22 at the start of the 2011 season.

After two seasons, Voss has no legacy. We can't say for sure whether he is a defensive coach, an attacking coach or whether he is tactically shrewd. If anything, he reminds us of Francis Bourke back at Richmond in the 1980s, fearless and skilful as a player, but unable to relate to any player who didn't bring the same qualities when he turned to coaching.

It might only have been the NAB Cup, but the Lions looked awful the other night against the Bombers and Saints.

His decision to surround himself with 'yes men' in the coaches box was a spectacular failure. Gary O'Donnell returns to the Lions as an assistant coach after several years with Essendon, but his CV was tarnished by the disaster that was the Bombers last season.

Where will the improvement come from?

The departure of Rischitelli, Brennan and yes, Fevola, leaves big gaps in Brisbane's structure and guts the side of much experience. Voss will be pinning his hopes on defensive playmakers Jed Adcock and Josh Drummond, who played just nine and seven games respectively last season because of injury. Daniel Merrett also missed six games with a knee injury mid-season, and certainly, if that trio can get on the park and stay there, then the Lions can expect to much more competitive.

Changing of the guard

It was an indictment on the Lions that Simon Black finished second in the best and fairest, while Luke Power finished fourth. Interestingly, both are out of the leadership group in 2011, a recognition that the next generation of Lions stars need to steer the club in a new direction. If there is an upside for the Lions, it is that Tom Rockliff, Jack Redden and Todd Banfield all earned NAB Rising Star nominations in 2010, while Daniel Rich won the award the year before.

Jonathan Brown

The skipper has given so much to the cause, but his groins let him down last year and he has already started 2011 with a sore knee. The partnership with Fev was almost up and going last season before the injuries started to bite, but with Fevola now gone, it is hard to see Brisbane in a position to kick too many winning scores unless Brown plays at least 20 games and dominates in a good chunk of them. The mind is willing, but will the body let him?

Here come the Suns

How much pressure will there be on the Lions if they fall behind the Suns early in the season and remain there? Voss has set himself up for failure with his claims that the Lions are "the team for all Queenslanders" when quite plainly, they no longer are. Heaven help the Lions if they lose one or both clashes with the Suns, The round 21 match-up between the sides at the Gabba could well decide who wins the spoon.

In a recent interview, Leigh Matthews, a three-time Lions premiership coach and before that a legend of the Hawthorn Football Club, said that with the wisdom of hindsight, he was so pleased he never coached the Hawks. Had he done so, he reasoned, it would have likely ended badly at some stage or another and his relationship with the club, which he describes as excellent, would instead be sullied.

Voss is the greatest ever Brisbane Lions player, but his standing at the club and among supporters will only be tarnished with another season as bad as 2010. And with a new president on board and imminently a new chief executive, his power base within the club isn't quite what it used to be.

His brilliant contribution to the Lions over nearly 20 years might count for nothing if, as we at BPL predict, the Lions finish the year in 17th place.