BRISBANE Lions coach Michael Voss believed his players' commitment in the heart-breaking two-point loss to Fremantle on Saturday night was "sensational" in the face of extreme adversity.

Voss said he could not fault his side, which lost key players Jonathan Brown and Brent Staker in the third quarter.

"We’ve got to pick ourselves up very quickly, lick our wounds and have a look at our injuries, but walk in knowing that we'll be prepared for the contest again next time," Voss said.

Brown was felled by a stray knee from Fremantle defender Luke McPharlin, which left the Lions captain a bloody mess and with possible facial fractures, while Staker could be looking at a season-ending knee injury.

The incidents happened within ten minutes of Voss substituting youngster Claye Beams, who kicked two goals on debut, for Amon Buchanan.
 
And after Brown left the ground a bloodied mess, fellow key forward, Mitch Clark, left the field with seven minutes to go in the final quarter, also sporting a bloodied face.

That left the Lions without a player on the interchange bench until Clark returned four minutes later with his head heavily bandaged.

Voss, responding to questions about the timing of his substitution, said he was left with little choice as Beams was also battling injury.
 
"We battled away for as long as we possibly could," Voss said. "We were swapping an injured player for an injured player, so it didn’t really matter that much. It wouldn’t have changed our decision really.

"It's a rule we're all adjusting to, and while we're adjusting to it, it's got teething issues. For us, we've just got to work our way through that ... I think we pretty much got it right, I don’t think we would have done too much differently.

"We hung on as long as we could, activated it when we needed, and we got subsequent injuries at the end of it. That just meant that our other players on the field were loaded more than they should have been.

"The one thing we didn't compromise was our trademark. We were courageous, but we didn't get the win. So when you fight so hard for something, it's difficult to walk away licking your wounds."

Voss said he would need to await the result of scans tomorrow on his injured captain's face, but was more concerned about the health of his key defender Staker.
 
"Staker's a little more serious, without confirming anything, we think it's a significant knee injury. But we have to wait for scans to confirm that. It's possibly an ACL, but that's just what they suspect at the moment," Voss said.

"We did come in healthy ... it was fleeting. We lost two players in a week. Luke (Power) was last night (Friday). I got a call about six o'clock and he's hurt his back."

Voss said he couldn't pinpoint where the game was won or lost, but singled out the efforts of Fremantle Dockers trio Aaron Sandilands, Matthew Pavlich and David Mundy as "very important".