Brisbane recruit Tom Doedee is hoping to become the latest Lion to play his best football after battling serious injury.
The 26-year-old trained with his new club for the first time on Monday after his off-season free agency move from Adelaide, where he made 82 appearances.
But Doedee is unlikely to be available to play for the beaten grand finalists until the middle of next year after rupturing his right ACL in June while playing for the Crows.
It was the second serious setback of the defender's career, after a reconstruction on his left knee in 2019.
Doedee said he did not have a timeline on his return but was enjoying running again post-operation.
"It's at the point where it's feeling pretty strong and comfortable," he said.
"I'm probably at a point where the knee's pretty strong and sound, it's just about consolidating and building up to a point where it's comfortable to join in drills and then match-sim."
The Lions' impressive track record of helping injury-prone players was part of Doedee's decision in making the move to the Queensland.
Linc McCarthy and Joe Daniher have thrived at the Lions after previously struggling to stay off the injury list.
"It was sort of something that looking from afar that I knew a lot of guys have come here and not just rehabbed well, but actually then played their best footy after it," Doedee said.
"Talking to the docs and the staff during the interview process, I knew that I was in the right hands."
Even when he is fit, Doedee knows he will have a fight on his hands to break into a team that fell just four points short of winning their first premiership since 2003.
Brisbane have finished inside the top-four for the past five seasons and remain firmly in the premiership window as they also prepare to welcome back rising star Will Ashcroft from an ACL injury suffered in his debut season.
