IT WAS a game of two halves at Etihad Stadium on Sunday and not surprisingly, Brisbane coach Chris Fagan was more expansive on what happened after half-time than before it.

The opening half was a calamity, as North Melbourne skipped out to a 55-point lead at the main interval and the Lions limped back to the change rooms with just 19 fit players following injuries to Hugh McCluggage (calf), Charlie Cameron (foot) and a concussion to Allen Christensen.

Yet the Lions won the second half by a point and as far as Fagan was concerned, that represented genuine progress.

"Funnily enough, l think we'll get a lot out of today," he said.

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"We won the second half, which was a mighty courageous performance from our players. We played hard and committed footy.

"I reckon this group last year, with three men down and getting beaten by that much in the first quarter and being beaten by 55 at half-time, might have been beaten by 100 points.

 "I think the character the group showed, the commitment and the courage to keep fighting on when you have (just) one rotation was outstanding."

According to veteran Luke Hodge, a focus on wiping the slate clean in the second half, irrespective of the score, paid dividends.

"It's something we've been working on," he said. "They were also over us but we're working on starting afresh whether you've had a good half or a bad half and play the footy you want to play, and I guess we were able to do that in the second half."

It was led by former skipper Dayne Beams, who was simply magnificent in the second half, finishing with 32 disposals, six clearances and five goals.

Relieving himself of the captaincy as he grieves for his deceased father has worked wonders for himself and the club.

"He's one of the outstanding players in the competition," Fagan enthused. "He's a footballer through and through, a great reader of the play with his capacity to win contested ball and hit the scoreboard.

"All credit to him. It seems as though not worrying about the captaincy has been a really good thing for him and his form and I'm glad he and we made that call. He's a tremendous player."

Brisbane's predicament will hold it in good stead for later in the season and beyond. Fagan was interested to see his players would work their way through it. Hodge felt they fought hard and kept control of the ball in large stages.

Cameron Rayner's future is in the midfield and he had a reasonable taste of it on Sunday with 21 touches, seven tackles and six clearances. Zac Bailey was good early and handy thereafter. Full-back Harris Andrews had the better of an increasingly-frustrated North spearhead Ben Brown.

But for all the optimism that came out of the second half, Fagan wasn't totally disregarding what preceded it. The Lions have yet to win a first quarter this year and their 33-point deficit at quarter-time on Sunday was really poor. And perplexing for the coach.

"I can assure you we've been trying all sorts of ways to play better in first quarters. We've been better recently, but it's a long way back from 33 points. We'll keep working at them and try to find a solution, but North set the standard and we were playing catch-up the rest of the day."