On the eve of finals, Hawthorn failed to perform against two-time reigning premier Brisbane in a finals like atmosphere on Friday night.
The Hawks fell to the Lions to the tune of 67 points despite having a near full strength team available at the Gabba.
However, coach Sam Mitchell said he backs his players in to produce a different result if the two teams line up again come September.
"We just weren't good enough tonight, but if we play them again, is it guaranteed that result again? Absolutely not," Mitchell said in the post-game press conference.
"We will lick our wounds, learn our lessons and we will be back.
"I thought the intensity of the game, I mean it felt on the bench in the early part of the game, first quarter and a half, probably felt like a final. It had that environment, it had that feeling, it had that stadium sort of feel.
"So we get a bit of a free hit at that in a sense early before that part of the season kicks off."
The Lions forwards were on fire throughout the match, wreaking havoc on Hawthorn's backline with key forward Logan Morris (four goals) and small forwards Kai Lohmann (five goals) and Charlie Cameron (three goals) damaging.
Meanwhile, Brisbane co-captain and star key defender Harris Andrews was equally dominant in the backline, finishing with 10 marks, four contested and nine intercepts.
Mitchell said he and his coaches were not flat footed in the box, as the Hawks moved the magnets around mid-match.
"We changed a few things in the match-ups in the game," he said.
"They obviously caused us a bit of trouble at both ends of the ground. Josh Weddle went to Morris and did a pretty good job for the majority but then we moved him around.
"Once the game was gone we tried a couple of things. Their best players performed very well and we probably had some of our guys not at their best. But it's not a sport where you want to be relying on individual players too often.
"I thought collectively we weren't up to the standard of the Lions tonight."
