Hard-running midfielder Nigel Lappin returns after more than a year on the sidelines, as the Brisbane Lions prepare to take a relatively experienced side into Saturday night's season opener against Hawthorn at the Gabba.

After having 21 debutants over the past two years, the Lions head into the match with the slightly unusual situation of having not a single player awaiting their first AFL game. Hawthorn's Xavier Ellis, the No. 3 selection of the 2005 National Draft, is the sole player set to debut on Saturday night.

Of the Lions' 22, only ruckman Cameron Wood (eight games) and elevated Irish rookie Colm Begley (two) have played less than 10 games. Seven of the squad have played more than 100 games, headed by Lappin who has been named in the centre and will play his first regular season game since Round 20 of 2005, when he broke a leg and dislocated an ankle. The 257-game veteran missed all of 2006 after injuring an ankle in the pre-season.

In interesting selection news for the Hawks, experienced forward Ben Dixon and young defender Zac Dawson missed selection and were named on the interchange bench, while Trent Croad was named at full-back and Danny Jacobs at centre half-back.

If both Hawthorn and Brisbane line up as named, Jacobs will find himself matched up on Lions powerhouse Jonathan Brown. The Hawks won't be terribly happy to see Brown back in uniform for the first time since Round 10 of last year - his last appearance against Hawthorn in round seven of 2006 at Carrara netted him eight goals in a 40-point Lions win.

The Lions teams is:

B: Chris Johnson (2), Daniel Merrett (21), Jason Roe (29)
HB: Jed Adcock (7), Jared Brennan (17), Robert Copeland (30)
C: Justin Sherman (11), Nigel Lappin (44), Cheynee Stiller (32)
HF: Matthew Moody (10), Jonathan Brown (16), Tim Notting (8)
F: Michael Rischitelli (35), Jamie Charman (19), Ashley McGrath (9)
R: Cameron Wood (31), Simon Black (20), Luke Power (6)
I/C: Ben Fixter (4), Joel Patfull (24), Colm Begley (46), Scott Harding (5)
Emerg: Beau McDonald (43), Matthew Tyler (15), Marcus Allan (42)

The Hawthorn team is:

B: Gilham, Croad, Birchall
HB: Guerra, Jacobs, Hodge
C: Ladson, Mitchell, Clarke
HF: Williams, Franklin, Lewis
F: Osborne, Roughead, Boyle
FOLL: Taylor, Sewell, Bateman
I/C: Campbell, Young, McGlynn, Ellis
EMG: Dawson, Dixon, Muston

ON THE PUNT

I seen it but I don't believe it! For the first time in 2007, in the wake of three wins and a Grand Final appearance in the pre-season, the Lions will start favourite in a match. UNiTAB prices had the Lions at $1.65 overnight, compared to Hawthorn's $2.20. Lions fans can get $2.25 for a victory of 39 points or less, $4.85 for a win of 39 or more and $51 for the somewhat unlikely scenario of a round one draw.

Oddly, Hawthorn actually enter the game higher in the premiership market than the Lions - Alastair Clarkson's side is $41 for the flag, while the Lions are still at $51. Jonathan Brown remains the most fancied Lion in the Brownlow race on $13, with Luke Hodge Hawthorn's shortest at $26. With Daniel Bradshaw out for the year with a knee injury, punters seem also keen on Brown's chances of winning the Coleman Medal - he's on the fourth line of betting at $10 despite never having previously kicked 50 goals in a season.

KEY MATCH-UPS

Jonathan Brown (Lions) v Danny Jacobs (Hawthorn): Team selection pits Brown against Jacobs but it will be interesting to see whether that scenario plays out - on a couple of fronts. For starters Brown could end up playing closer to goal than a traditional centre half-forward. Secondly, Jacobs doesn't necessarily appear the Hawk best equipped to deal with the rampaging centre half-forward. Last time out against the Hawks, in round seven of 2006 at Carrara, Brown dined out on Joel Smith and Jarryd Roughead to the tune of eight goals. Smith is injured and isn't in the selection frame for this week, while Roughead has been named at full-forward. Trent Croad, selected at full-back, would seem the best fit to play on Brown but that might leave the Hawks with headaches as to who to play on the even taller Jamie Charman.

Jared Brennan (Lions) v Lance Franklin (Hawthorn): Centre half-forward, at either end of the ground, might turn out to be the place to watch on Saturday night. There has been some suggestion in the press that the versatile Tim Notting will actually line up on Franklin but the way the teams have been named, Brennan gets first crack - and what a battle that could be. Franklin, the No. 5 pick of the 2004 National Draft, is starting to blossom and was a star of the pre-season. Brennan, taken at No. 3 in the 2002 National Draft, may finally have found an on-field home down back and looked comfortable in defence during the NAB Cup. Both are athletic, fun to watch, occasionally unorthodox and slightly unpredictable.

Cameron Wood (Lions) v Simon Taylor (Hawthorn): Before the pre-season, odds would have been against Wood and Taylor locking horns as first rucks. But Daniel Bradshaw's unfortunate knee injury and Jamie Charman's move forward have given Wood a chance to contest the opening bounce. And Taylor's strong pre-season has seen him picked ahead of the more experienced Robert Campbell, who is named on the bench. The showdown between the two big men - Taylor stands at 200cm and Wood at 204cm - is unlikely to be especially pretty. But it might be intriguing - not to mention crucial to the outcome of the match.

ODDS & SODS

*** We're not sure whether anyone actually keeps stats on these kinds of things but decisions made at the selection table have prevented the footballing public seeing three players named Beau running around on the field together at the same time - presumably for the first time ever. Lions ruckman Beau McDonald was squeezed out of the home side and is an emergency, as is Beau Muston for the Hawks. Beau Dowler didn't make the Hawks' 25.

*** Saturday night's game will feature only two players in their 30s - Lions veterans Chris Johnson and Nigel Lappin - and the pair only hit the big 3-0 last year. Football, it seems, is increasingly becoming a young man's game.

*** All eyes will be on Saturday night's main game, but nearly as many could be on the curtain-raiser, where Richard Hadley makes his long-awaited comeback from consecutive knee reconstructions. Hadley will turn out for the Suncoast Lions against Mt Gravatt, with first bounce scheduled for 3.20pm.

*** The Lions have an impressive record against the Hawks - having won 11 of 17 meetings so far and nine of the last 10. But Alastair Clarkson's young side is capable of springing surprises and knocked off red-hot Geelong and highly-fancied Fremantle in winning four of their first give games in 2006. Lions fans with good memories will recall round four of 2005, when the Hawks - inspired in part by then first-year player Franklin - shocked the Lions by 46 points at the MCG.

***Clark Keating, who will perform a lap of honour before Saturday night's game, is the 11th player from the Lions' last premiership team of 2003 to retire. The others are Alastair Lynch, Shaun Hart, Michael Voss, Blake Caracella, Justin Leppitsch, Martin Pike, Craig McRae, Darryl White, Marcus Ashcroft and Mal Michael - the last of whom, of course, is now famously unretired and playing for Essendon. Keating's lap will mark the fourth year in a row the Lions have celebrated the career of a retiree at the first Gabba game of the year. Ashcroft went around in 2004, Lynch, Hart and McRae in 2005 and White in 2006.