After the NAB Cup success gave the Lions the perfect pre-season fillip, Voss conceded the 68-point humbling in round one to the Western Bulldogs could have derailed their season.
Next week the Lions travel down the M1 to the Gold Coast where a third straight defeat would heap pressure on the coach.
Voss insists the effort put in by the Lions in the 19-point loss at the Gabba was a far more accurate reflection of what he expects to see from his side in 2013.
“That’s what the group is about,” Voss said.
“In some ways, although we didn't get our season away to the start we wanted, I feel like we just started.
“While we've still got things to work on, we should take better confidence away from that.
“We had our run of play and we weren't able to get our efficiency up and put our points on the opposition. Sometimes it comes down to that.
“Are we happy? Absolutely not, but we made some progress over where we were at this time last week which could have threatened our season because it was such a bad performance.
“We've just got to make sure we reset ourselves and get ready for the Gold Coast.
“We're still not getting exactly what we're after, but I thought we made some headway into that for us to be able to build on, educate and set ourselves to go against the Gold Coast.”
Lions defender Daniel Merrett said the players had vowed to put in a wholehearted effort after their soulless opening at the Etihad Stadium.
“Last week we were bitterly disappointed from the effort we put out,” Merrett said.
“As a playing group we made a pact we won’t let that happen to us again.
“It sucks not to get the four points because we were so close. We still felt late we just needed to get our hands on the footy.
“Obviously they kicked another goal ahead and we were out of it.”
The area where the Lions did not improve was in clearances, where the Crows dominated them even more than the Bulldogs did last week.
Despite Matthew Leuenberger dominating in the ruck and the Lions enjoying a 51-29 advantage in hit-outs, the Crows made 13 more clearances.
Of particular disappointment to Voss was the fact that Adelaide were able to turn clearance success into goals.
“They scored a lot from stoppages, so that was the Achilles heel across the whole night,” Voss said.
“They scored around eight goals from it. It’s fine to be able to lose clearances - obviously you don't want to be smashed at them, but you don't want to be scored from them.
“I think they scored around eight goals from stoppages.
“We just weren't able to stop that at any phase.”
