BRISBANE Lions captain Dayne Beams loves the way Nick Robertson plays, but said the young "hot head" would have to make smarter decisions when opponents got under his skin.

Robertson was a central figure in two controversial incidents on Sunday, starting with the headbutt on Richmond skipper Trent Cotchin that saw Lions tagger reported.

Moments later, Robertson was on the end of a left-hand clip from Richmond superstar Dustin Martin that is also expected to draw attention from the Match Review Panel.

Speaking on Monday, Beams said Robertson would start attracting more opposition attention and would have to find a balance between being physical and being smart.

"We love the way Nick plays," Beams said.

"He goes out and plays his role and lives our trademark probably better than anyone in our side.

"We understand he's a little bit of a hot head and sometimes he probably does cross the line a little bit, and yesterday he might have regretted doing what he did.

"We'll have to see what the Match Review Panel come up with, but we don't want Nick to lose his aggression, we want him to make the right decision at the right time and yesterday he probably didn't make the right decision."

It's not the first time this season Robertson has made his way into the headlines.

In round seven against Sydney he got into a scuffle with Lance Franklin that drew the ire of the Swans superstar.

"He's naturally an aggressive player so it's probably a little harder for him (to tone it down) than some," Beams said.

"Opposition sides are probably going to get under his skin a bit and try and antagonise him and get him to react that way, so he needs to be able to deal with that, and I think as he plays more footy he'll learn to deal with it better."

After losing to the Tigers by 31 points, the Lions have quickly turned their attention to Sunday's match against Carlton at the Gabba.

Beams said the experienced midfield group including himself, Tom Rockliff, Dayne Zorko and Stefan Martin, would have to lift significantly.

"Our midfield group did get beaten up yesterday, it was 20-4 centre bounce clearances and overall we went down by 15, and that was really where the game was won and lost," he said.

"We've got a job as a midfield group to bounce back.

"It's been an area we've been relatively good in, so we're not going to lose sight of the fact we have been pretty good, but we understand we got beaten up and we have to rectify it this week."