Brisbane look set to make moves via this year's trade and free agency mechanisms in the hope of bolstering their attacking ranks following the retirement of premiership forward Joe Daniher.
Daniher was nothing short of a mercurial player. He made the unbelievable believable. He was an entertainer, a spectacle unto himself and, most importantly for the Brisbane Lions, their most compelling forward.
Not many AFL clubs employ a player capable of taking the opposing team's best defender and playing second ruck in the same game. Nor do they employ one that could guarantee you a barrage of goals in any given season and take that form through to the biggest stages of the AFL season.
That's why the gaping chasm left in Daniher's retirement is something the Lions will need to address promptly. 2025 is the year of the stop-gap acquisition; Sam Day. Day has been a serviceable AFL player for a long time, but no one is suggesting he will be able to replicate even half of what Daniher was able to provide.
Same can be said for Brandon Ryan, who Brisbane acquired in the trade that sent Jack Gunston back to the Hawks in 2023.
With that in mind, Brisbane will be in the market to poach a big-name forward to play alongside Eric Hipwood and the budding Logan Morris for 2026 onwards.
Here we name four players out of contract at the end of 2025 who Brisbane should be in the market for at the end of this season, starting with West Coast co-captain Oscar Allen following recent trade links to the Lions.
2. Peter Ladhams
Peter Ladhams has become something of a forgotten name in the footballing world.
Since departing from Port Adelaide, a combination of injuries, suspensions and the inclusion of Brodie Grundy have derailed any and all chances of consistency for him. A move interstate might be for the best and Brisbane might be the perfect club for him.
At Brisbane, Ladhams would play a second-fiddle role to Hipwood and allow him to get up the ground more, while Ladhams plays as a deeper forward. This would be beneficial to him and the Lions, as he does possess strong ruck craft and could allow big Oscar McInerney to rest down the ground.
He doesn't possess the mercurial talents of Daniher or the potential to be one of the competition's strongest forwards like Allen, but he is able to understand and fill a role that was tailor-made for him.
Sydney don't have as much use for him with Joel Amartey and Hayden McLean looking more and more comfortable in the senior game.
