The hard-nut from Lauderdale was sacked by Carlton last year following a season that saw his on and off-field actions questioned.

He was suspended three times and then was involved in a late-night incident that saw him suffer a fractured eye socket.

The Lions signed him as a delisted free agent last October, one of three big-name recruits to the club following Dayne Beams [Collingwood] and Allen Christensen [Geelong].

Robinson told The Examiner that starting again away from the ‘‘footy bubble’’ that is Melbourne had been good for him and that he had sorted out his off and on-field issues.

‘‘I want to be a leader at this club,’’ the 25-year-old, 100 game player said.

‘‘I’m in a pretty good head space at the moment, but I know footy isn’t going to be here forever.

‘‘The one thing this all made me think about was that, and being able to provide for my family, as I have a young son [Chance], so being able to give him a good life.

‘‘So I will obviously be doing everything I can to get as much out of this as I can, and call myself a Queenslander at the end of my time [at the Lions].

‘‘I [recently] wore the jumper for the first time in an intraclub match, and that did feel a bit different, but it really will be surreal against Collingwood at the Gabba in round 1.

‘‘It will be nerve-racking, but I can’t wait for it.’’

Robinson believes his hard-at-it approach will be beneficial for Brisbane.

‘‘I’m not looking to change too many things about my game and I will be looking to bring that pressure and that tackling, something which Brisbane lacked last year.

‘‘Also having played and trained with guys like Juddy [Chris Judd], [Andrew] Carrazzo, [Marc] Murphy and [Bryce] Gibbs, I know I can bring something.

‘‘They are just an exciting team, with young guys like [Dayne] Zorko, [Josh] Green and [Lewis] Taylor and a great captain in [Tom] Rockliff leading the way.

’‘‘We are not putting any pressure on ourselves, but we feel that we can improve.

‘‘Us three [Robinson, Beams and Christensen], we will just bring experience, having all played more than 100 games, and we have all played finals and all had some success in finals.

‘‘If we can bring that into the club, we can hopefully push the boys into a finals campaign so they can experience it themselves.’’

Robinson said he was aiming to get back to his form of 2011, when he spent plenty of time in the midfield and averaged 21 possessions a game.

‘‘I’ve been tackling hard for my whole career, and know I’ve still been doing that, so I just need to harness that aggression.

‘‘I’m up here for a reason, and that is to win games for Brisbane, so hopefully if I can combine with the guys well in the midfield and also push forward I can do that [get back to his 2011 form].’’

Robinson said this year had been the hardest pre-season he had undertaken, but felt he was in the best physical shape of his life.

But, he’s also not about to forget his former employer, with the round six clash against Carlton the first one he wrote in his diary when the fixture was released.