BRISBANE Lions coach Michael Voss is banking on retaining most of his players as the club commences its internal review into a disappointing season.

The Lions finished in 13th place with seven wins, including just three from its last 18 games.

Voss said while the Gold Coast is entitled to one uncontracted player from each club, he did not expect widespread changes in his playing roster.

“We have got a lot of players out of contract and as far as I am concerned they are all required,” Voss said.

“We certainly had a fair exodus of players last year. We’re trying to strengthen our list by the development of our list now so being able to make wholesale changes just isn’t on the radar.”

Voss said picking up young talent would be the focus, after recruiting six established players last season.

“We’re trying to create stability so any growth that we get is going to come from the draft system,” Voss said.

“We would love to be able to strengthen our midfield brigade but at the same time it comes with a proviso that the best player available is the person that we are after so that could be a medium sized player or that could be a tall for that matter.”

Voss hinted at a shorter pre-season for his players after battling through a horror injury list for much of 2010.

Players will return to training for one week on October 4 to prepare for their exhibition match against Melbourne in China.

Pre-season training then officially starts on November 7, giving players an extra week off.

“I think we could all utilise a longer rest and a shorter preparation,” Voss said.

“We’ve had fairly significant pre-seasons for the last four years so you’re not thinking that you need an enormously long one to be able to bolster the players.

“We have got to make sure that we monitor them correctly and if you do go that little bit too long or you go that little bit too hard you run the risk of being able to cook your players.”

Voss said the results of the club’s internal review should be known within two weeks, yielding some answers on what went wrong this season.

“Clearly we haven’t got the best out of our players this year so we have got to look at that,” Voss said.

“What we expected to happen and what did happen are completely different.”
Voss said the review would include a look at the club’s resources, playing roster and staff.

He expressed support for recruiting a football manger in the mould of Neil Balme at Geelong.

Voss ruled out offering Matthew Knights a job as an assistant coach.