The Lions broke a five-year Finals drought in 2009 when they made it through to the second week of September in Voss’ first season as coach, but have since won a total of just 11 matches from their past two seasons.
“Finals are always our benchmark,” Voss said.
“I could never come into my (pre-season) program and sell to the players that Finals isn’t on our horizon.”
“The players’ expectations are always to play Finals.”
But while the aim for 2012 is clear, Voss is not losing sight on the bigger picture.
“This (season) is another stepping stone,” he said.
“What this Football Club has done over the past 12 months is keep its focus fixed firmly on the future - and part of that involves the next 12 months as well.”
The Lions officially kick-off their 2012 pre-season campaign on Monday, and Voss was pleased with the condition his players returned in.
“It’s really good to see, but that should be our standard from now on,” he said.
“I’m sure they’ve had a good time, and we encourage that because they need their recovery and mental relaxation. But it says that they’ve been quite pro-active in their off-season.”
Voss was also pleased to see the majority of players taking part in the full program, with only Brent Staker sidelined with a long-term injury.
“We’ve got 35 players out there training and there’s three others who are only a week or two away,” he said.
“You always want to come in with a healthy list. You don’t want to have that hangover of having too many operations.”
“Now we’re coming into a pretty intense period where they’re going to be fatigued a lot.”
“For the first two weeks there’s mainly a running component, and we just start to get our legs going with some kicking. It’s pretty important because we don’t want to get those soft tissue injuries and I think we did pretty well with them last year and want to continue that trend.”
After missing a large chunk of last season with two separate facial injuries, Lions Captain Jonathan Brown was training with the main group on day one.
“Browny’s in good shape. He didn’t play too many games last year and, by the look of it, the reins will be out pretty early,” Voss said.
“But he manages himself so well, he’s the last person you have to worry about. He understands what’s required to prepare himself for a season.”
“He’s also pretty determined with a new group of players down there to form those relationships.”
“Jordan Lisle will play there, and Patty Karnezis will be up forward again, so given the fact it’s a relatively new group down there, he sees those relationships as being pretty important.”
