Brisbane coach Chris Fagan has admitted his side is well off the competition benchmark following a 78-point loss to GWS.
Sitting at 6-5, the Lions now face an uphill battle to make the top four and while Fagan said he would take optimism from their ability to come back from being written off previously, there was much work to do.
“This is one moment in time, it's not a great moment, it's not the highlight of my coaching career at the Brisbane Lions but it is a moment we can choose whether we get better from it or we continue to go backwards,” Fagan said.
“Because at the moment, we're going backwards. We're nowhere near a premiership fancy at all.
“We're just battling to find our form at the moment and that's been the case for the last two and a half games."
A paltry third quarter where Brisbane conceded a record-breaking 14 goals was the difference in the game.
While it was unexpected, Fagan highlighted that third quarters have become problematic for his side.
The Lions conceded six goals to three against Geelong in the third term last week, which put the game out of reach, while Carlton got back into the game with six of their own a fortnight ago.
“I certainly didn't see it coming at half-time but when it did, nothing we tried worked. They played an unbelievable third quarter…we got smashed everywhere – at the contest, ball movement, we couldn't stop it,” Fagan said.
“They just controlled the game unfortunately and to be truthful our third quarters have been a problem for us for the last three weeks for some reason or another. Sometimes quirky things pop up…we need to have a talk to the group and work out what's happening there.
“We tried putting a player behind the ball, we tried a whole lot of things, but when you can't win the footy and you can't get possession of it, this game is hard to play and that's been a pattern in the last three weeks in third quarters. We've been beaten in the contest.”
Fagan added that the way the Lions were trying to play further hindered their cause.
“I think we had our contest method a bit wrong. We had our hands on the ball a lot of times but coughed it up rather than just getting it on our boot, kicking it forward and taking the territory,” Fagan said.
“I think we invited that pressure, they forced those turnovers and then they were able to score running in to a fairly open forward line.”
The Lions will be looking to bounce back against top of the table Fremantle next weekend.
