IF YOU can't beat them join them, and that's exactly what the Brisbane Lions plan on doing when they play Melbourne on Sunday.
The Lions have had a much improved month and coach Justin Leppitsch says the focus over the final five weeks of the season will rest squarely on limiting the opposition.
Which folds nicely into Sunday's match against the Demons at Etihad Stadium, a team from whom Leppitsch expects to receive no favours.
In fact, the Lions coach has warned his team they will be frustrated at times against Paul Roos' men, but said they had to think their way through things.
"They've kept their opposition to fairly low margins for most of the year, so I can't expect them going into this game any differently," Leppitsch said prior to training at the Gabba on Thursday morning.
"They fold numbers back and it always makes it difficult to score when you do that, and we've been through that with our opposition meeting. It's going to be composure to think your way through that's going to be important.
"I've got no doubt there'll be times in this game our players will be frustrated, but how you handle those frustrations is the most important thing."
In last weekend's romp against Gold Coast, midfielders Tom Rockliff (47 disposals) and Pearce Hanley (45) had career nights as they ran around seemingly unopposed.
Leppitsch knows they will be afforded no such luxury against Melbourne, and warned both players they could be facing three or four different match-ups through the afternoon.
But after conceding just 69 points a contest over the past four matches, the Lions have their eyes fixed squarely on the defensive side of the game.
"That's our big focus," Leppitsch said.
"I've been involved in teams that can't make finals and what tends to happen is effort drops away first.
"We don't want any blowouts. It's been a month, five games (since losing by 83 points to Fremantle), so we want to keep that as far away from us as possible."
