THE WORST is over for the Brisbane Lions.
That's the view of coach Justin Leppitsch, who said he felt no extra pressure on his position despite the Lions' 1-10 start to the season.
Following external questions over his job, Lions director Leigh Matthews guaranteed the coach's position until the end of his 2017 contract earlier this week.
Speaking at his weekly press conference on Friday, Leppitsch said for the Lions to escape being a "middle class team" they had to rebuild from the ground up.
He said he made no apologies for having to go through some heartache in the meantime.
"We had to go backwards to go forwards, there was no doubt about it," Leppitsch said.
"I know it's hard for our fans at times to not have wins on the board, we're confident the wins will come in the back half of the year, but it's really for us about building a sustained future for the footy club.
"The one thing people don't want to give you in this game is time.
"Unfortunately, you get a kid at 18 and everyone wants him to be a superstar at 19, that's not the way it works.
"You'll forget about these times pretty quickly but if you don't invest in these times, you won't get the glory days either."
Leppitsch compared the current Lions' plight to that of the 1993-1994 Brisbane Bears team, in which he was a part.
Those young Bears teams – that formed the nucleus of a 1995 finals outfit and ultimately their triple premiership team from 2001-2003 – won a total of 13 games over those two seasons.
Leppitsch said he was internally being judged on exposing young talent after turning over 34 players in his three pre-seasons.
He said the club's ability to keep its young players was a priority on his arrival and was something they had now ticked off.
When asked whether they had hit the bottom and were now on the way up, Leppitsch was emphatic.
"Definitely," he said.
"When I looked at the list when I first got here, and even last year and we were playing reserves, you were playing a lot of guys you were unsure of or didn't think had a future at the footy club.
"I've got three or four running around the reserves now we think are going to be our best players in three of four years time. That's a good sign for the footy club.
"We're living the week to week of it (struggles) and that's no fun for anyone, let alone the senior coach.
"Unless you want to live this cycle, you probably won't get to the top, you'll only ever stay around the middle.
"As a club we don't want to stay around the middle, which is where we were when I took the job over, a middle class team.
"That's the path we're taking, no apologies for that.
"Unfortunately with that comes a little bit of pain as far as win/loss.
"Our list is young, it needs games, it needs time."
Leppitsch said his team had "little wins" in each game, and believed over time their skills would improve.
