BRISBANE coach Craig Starcevich thinks his team will play with a little bit of anger in Saturday's clash with Melbourne after its biggest loss in AFLW history last week.
The Lions were blown away to the tune of 44 points by North Melbourne in a huge win that included six unanswered goals in the third quarter.
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"Anytime we've come off losses in the past, there's been a level of desperation that you need to spin the circle back up into a higher confidence," Starcevich said.
"Clearly there'll be some people that would have been rocked a little bit by what happened last week and their own form. They're all proud competitors, our group, and I'm sure they'll find a way."
He admits his side was unable to apply attacking pressure on the Kangaroos, and one poor quarter blew the eventual margin out.
"We weren't good at any point last week to put enough pressure on the opposition to really get them defending us, but we had a particularly poor third quarter," Starcevich said.
"So if you try to analyse things and break it down, we had one quarter of pretty poor footy."
The club was in a similar situation this time last year, having lost its season opener to Richmond at home before going on to win the premiership.
"Every time we want to go out, we want to win. What it does do is sort of sharpen your focus as to what's the best line-up, what's our best method," Starcevich said.
"The proof will be when they get out there tomorrow to see whether we've grabbed hold of any things that were really poor last week."
The Lions will head to Melbourne's fortress of Casey Fields for the 10th match between the two inaugural sides. But the venue won't faze the visitors, who are one of just two sides to beat the Demons at their main home ground since 2020.
"Our record over the eight years has been good up to this point," Starcevich said.
"It's big, spacious, we've had some success there, the losses we've had there have been by a goal or less, so we wouldn't mind going out there and serving up a little bit of the same.
"But yeah, this week in particular, it's more about not necessarily venues and opposition, it's more about getting our own house in order."
