Brisbane co-captain Josh Dunkley has rationalised the Lions' current situation following a damning 78-point loss to GWS on Sunday.
The Lions skipper was 45-minutes late for his media opportunity on Tuesday as the squad held an extended debrief off the back of two consecutive losses.
“It was something we needed to have. It's not a crisis or anything like that, it's just conversations we have inside the four walls,” Dunkley said.
“We've had conversations like that before where we tell each other the truth and move forward. We're a close group, players and staff.
“We'll look at everything now, troubleshoot and move forward. Standing here you guys make me feel like the world's about to end but it's certainly not. We're still 6-5, in a good position.
“We can tidy up a few things as a football club and that's going to help us win games of football. There's things within our game (including our defence) we need to clean up and go to work on.”
Brisbane's defensive intent was a focus of the meeting ahead of a clash with Fremantle.
The Lions have conceded 100 points or more to Gold Coast, Melbourne, Sydney, Western Bulldogs and GWS this year after doing so only three times last year.
“The defensive side of the game, why we haven't been at the level we've been at in the past? There's a number of factors to that,” Dunkley said.
“There's many things we can control but there's a number of things we can't control and what we've got to look at is things we can control which is attitude and effort indicator so we'll focus on that and make it better.”
While his average of 20 disposals this year is below his career threshold, Dunkley remained reasonably comfortable with his individual form.
“The way I look at form is ‘am I delivering on trademark? Am I delivering on things we're going to be happy with inside our four walls rather than ratings or stats',” Dunkley said.
“I could not care less about any of that. All I care about is winning. If I'm playing my role to help us win, if I'm not playing my role then that's an issue. For us as a midfield group, we're playing our roles. Yes, we can be better defensively as I just touched on and that's something we'll go to work on in the coming weeks.”
