BRISBANE Lions coach Michael Voss said he was just happy to get a win, after his side stopped dead in the final term as it beat Essendon by 27 points at Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

The Lions led by 58 points early in the last quarter when skipper Jonathan Brown kicked his fourth, but then the Lions shut down mentally and allowed the Bombers to kick the last five of the match before finishing 14.11 (95) to 10.8 (68).

The Lions had won just one game since May and a clearly relieved Voss said he was thrilled to get a win on the board.

"I'd take any four points at this point in time," he said after the match.

"The game finished poorly, but I think that once we'd emotionally got the win, we took our bat and ball and that was about it.

"I think we've been in pretty good form for about a month, actually - the results might not depict it, but the markers that we've been taking have been going in the north direction for a while.

"When you look at the game today, in the first half I thought we used the ball pretty well - we probably over-possessed it a few times with hands early on, but generally speaking, our efficiency has improved dramatically if you take the last quarter out of the equation."

Troy Selwood was injured again, this time with a cracked sternum after he and Kyle Hardingham clashed on the wing.

Voss, who was renowned for his toughness when he was playing, said Selwood was too brave for his own good and needed to think a little about self-preservation.

"He's not in a great way - he opens himself up more than once but he's as brave as they come," he said.

"All the players look up to him and I'm sure the guys will get around him, knowing he's in a fair bit of pain at the moment.

"I don't think he's the only Selwood boy that suffers from that, when you watch footy.

"It's one of those things, technique-wise, you've got to be able to protect yourself.

"He might need to protect himself a little bit better from time-to-time, but you've only got to see his courage, and how he approaches his footy, and that's why the players admire him."