Brisbane coach Chris Fagan admits a sense of complacency likely crept into the squad following its dismal showing against Sydney.
Fagan slammed the performance and said it was not up to standard, querying whether the Lions players entered the game with the right mindset.
"I guess it's a little hard when what happened, happened and all those really good players who normally play for Sydney didn't play tonight for players to think in the back of their minds that this might be a bit of an easier game than this turned out to be," Fagan said.
Sydney stormed out of the blocks with their hunger and pressure around the contest, ability to chain possession and score from stoppage put the defence under immense pressure as the Swans marking targets thrived.
It will force the Lions to play four finals for the third consecutive September if they are to defend their premiership.
"I looked back at the team when we played them in the middle of the year and we had a pretty good win and all those guys plus a few others are in that team and we didn't have (Dayne) Zorko, (Hugh) McCluggage, Oscar Allen," Fagan said.
"We had a better team in theory and they had a lesser team in theory and they were able to do that."
Fagan said he did not second guess the decision to include McCluggage or ponder the makeup of the team.
He was also unable to shed any light on defender Noah Answerth's ankle injury suffered in the first quarter. He returned for most of the game before being put on ice once the result became clear.
To be honest with you, I tried very hard to convince my players it was going to be a tough game, we were going to be going to the SCG, Sydney's home ground, but somewhere in the deep recesses of their mind, I just wonder if they really thought it was going to be as hard as what it was," Fagan conceded/
"Sydney was magnificent tonight. They won because they were tougher, harder, they ran harder, they used the ball well, they were excellent and they should be proud of their effort."
Fagan added it was hard to escape the external narrative, but said some confidence exists in their ability to perform with their backs to the wall - though admitted his side could not rely on history repeating.
"'Did you really think it was going to be that hard or did you think it would be a walk in the park?' Because that is how it had been painted by all and sundry and probably quite rightly so but you can never underestimate the human spirit and that was on show tonight," he said.
