It's not panic stations yet for Chris Fagan but the Brisbane Lions coach admits he has key players out of form and no obvious answer to their struggles after a third-straight loss to begin the AFL season.
The Lions were beaten by 20 points in Thursday's grand final replay with Collingwood, their second defeat in as many games as their traditional Gabba fortress this season.
Lachie Neale had a game-high 35 disposals despite tweaking his ankle and also copping a stiff open palm to the chest from Scott Pendlebury, who could face scrutiny in a 387-game career that's so far without suspension.
Fagan lamented dropped marks, too many handballs and an inability to convert an inside-50 count 56-43 in their favour as the coach was again left to stare at a statistics sheet with plenty of positives.
"That's consistency, isn't it? There's a lot of green on this stat sheet and that's been the frustrating thing about it," he said.
"Normally when we win inside-50s we win, but for some reason or other we're not.
"The answer's not obvious."
Brisbane haven't lost three consecutive regular-season games since 2018, when they started their campaign with eight straight losses.
Unbeaten at the Gabba last season, Fagan admitted they were in a "little slump" and it was his job to help his players rediscover their magic.
"Some of our players are not at their best at the moment; I can't explain to you why," he said.
"That's sport for you.
"It's a good challenge. You talk to them about what they're good at, reinforce that.
"Form comes and goes. So it's just positivity, but honesty as well. They've been good players, we won't be pushing the panic button.
"I've trusted them a long time and they've delivered, so I'm not going to jump off them just because we've lost three in a row."
The Lions play North Melbourne in Adelaide next week before facing Melbourne at the MCG, Geelong at the Gabba and GWS in Canberra.
"There's 20 (rounds) to go, isn't there? A long way to go," he said.
"We've got a bit of work to do, to find ourselves.
"You're making it sound like we're 0-13. It's not a great start, but let's not catastrophise it either, would be the way I'd look at it.
"I don't want to buy into that just yet."
