Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan says his side must earn the chance to play in another grand final

If Brisbane coach Chris Fagan needed any reminding that the Lions’ season was about to start, it came in a familiar and unpleasant manner this week.

“I haven’t had a pain in the guts for about four or five months and I’ve got one this week, so something’s happening,” Fagan said ahead of Brisbane’s “Opening Round” clash with Carlton at the Gabba on Friday night.

“The excitement rises. We do a lot of work over the summer, we do a lot of work with our players. We hold our breath in practice games that we don’t get too many injuries because we want to get to the line in the best shape we can be, and here we are.

“It never changes. It’s always exciting. You don’t know what way it ends. That’s the beauty of the season.”

The way it “ended” for the Lions last season was a heartbreaking four-point grand final loss to Collingwood.

And while premiership redemption in Brisbane’s ultimate goal, Fagan said the Lions had a lot of work ahead of them to earn a spot in this season’s decider.

“All you think about is your next performance and you know if you get enough of your performances right during the footy season, that you’ll be there when the whips are cracking,” he said.

“You can’t get caught up in thinking too far ahead. It’s just insane to do that.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen. The competition’s so even, so you can’t even assume that you’re going to get (to the grand final). They’re so hard to get into.”

For Lions star Cam Rayner, who seems set to spend more time in the midfield this season, the pain of the grand final loss still lingers.

“It’s difficult. It doesn’t get any easier to watch it,” Rayner said.

“You see the footy start to come back around and all the hype around Collingwood defending the premiership and it’s hard to not think back to that, and think about how close we are, but it’s another great stepping stone going forward.

“We’ve reviewed it thoroughly and added things over the pre-season that we think are going to help us. We’ve been trying to implement them in the last couple of (pre-season) games and going into this weekend’s game is another great opportunity to try to do that.

“It’s a tough pill to swallow, but everyone’s taking it in the right way, and come back really hungry.”

Rayner, who has shown he can play anywhere on the park, is thrilled with the prospect of having a greater “impact” on matches in the midfield.

“Probably the step forward I took last year in my footy was just my consistency, and that’s something I really pride myself on,” he said.

“I want to be able to be a player that’s reliable every single week, and don’t go up and down through the game, so being able to get in there and have more impact on contests and around the ground, that just adds to that.”