THE BRISBANE Lions have the inner belief they can be a good team. Now, according to midfielder Travis Johnstone, they just have to prove it to everyone else.
Johnstone, who missed the shock round-14 loss to former club Melbourne through injury, will return to action against Essendon at the Dome on Saturday night.
The clash with the 12th-placed Bombers is the first of four straight matches in which the seventh-placed Lions take on sides sitting below them on the ladder. West Coast (15th), Richmond (11th) and North Melbourne (10th) will follow.
"We want to be a good team and we think we can be. But we aren’t there yet and our last game showed that," Johnstone told lions.com.au.
"Good teams beat sides that are below them on the ladder and, having lost to Melbourne, we obviously haven’t done that.
"Over the next four weeks we play other teams that are below us, so that’s an opportunity to prove that we can do what good teams do."
Despite that opportunity, Johnstone says the Lions must follow the well-tried mantra of taking their football a week at a time.
The loss against the Demons, he explains, makes it a necessity.
"We honestly can’t afford to look further ahead than the next weekend and whichever side we are playing – starting with Essendon," Johnstone said.
"This next month is going to be big for us but we really have to go out each week and approach it like it’s the last game of the season.
"I think we’ve learned a lot from the game against Melbourne. It was a fair bit of a reality check and, from a team perspective, a pretty poor effort."
Johnstone is one of a string of Lions to experience hamstring trouble over the last six weeks – a list that includes running defenders Jason Roe, Ash McGrath and Josh Drummond.
The 27-year-old expects his legs to get a work-out on Saturday night against an Essendon side that has become renowned for its eagerness to run.
"I actually feel pretty refreshed having missed the last game – with the bye after that it will have been three weeks since I’ve played," he said.
"(Essendon) is going to be a really tough game for us. They’ve got plenty of quick players and from what I’ve seen they’ve played a pretty attacking brand of footy this year.
"I can’t imagine they’d be changing that for any reason this week."