THE Brisbane Lions never stopped trying but were unable to celebrate Queensland Week the way they wanted, going down to the Western Bulldogs by 23 points at the Gabba on Saturday night.

The Lions had their moments, kicking the first two goals of the match, rallying to three goals in five minutes late in the third term and then keeping their visitors goalless in the last quarter.

The Bulldogs, however, had too much run in the middle stages of the match en route to a 13.17 (95) to 10.12 (72) win.

The hour between the eighth minute of the first term and the seventh minute of the third proved decisive, with the Bulldogs kicking eight goals and the Lions none, the visitors at one stage extending their lead to 55 points..

The Lions were much better thereafter and kicked four third-quarter goals in the space of nine minutes through the agency of Tim Notting (two), Jared Brennan and Nigel Lappin.

But by that time the bird, or in this case, the dogs, had flown, although some fourth quarter highlights - Marcus Allan’s desperate soccer, Brennan’s goal-of-the-week candidate and a Jonathan Brown goal - restored respectability to the scoreboard.

The 29,873 fans who braved the unusually cold Brisbane weather to see new Bulldog Jason Akermanis return to ground where he spent 12 seasons had to wait the best part of 13 minutes for any real action.

Opposed by the tough and tenacious Robbie Copeland, Aker battled to get into the play early on, before kicking two majors as the Bulldogs surged.

The first two goals of the match belonged to the Lions, Notting bombing with laser accuracy from beyond 50m and Brennan converting after marking strongly overhead.

At that stage the Lions looked well placed to go on with the job and post a fifth win for the season.

But the Bulldogs quickly worked their way back into the contest and, with their running players finding plenty of the ball, the visitors booted the next six majors to be 29 points up at the first change.

Neither side played champagne football in a scrappy second term but the Bulldogs added another goal to be 36 points in front going into half-time – in what turned out to be a match-winning break.

WESTERN BULLDOGS   6.8   7.12  13.15  13.17 (95)

BRISBANE LIONS     2.3   2.6    7.8   10.12 (72)

GOALS - Western Bulldogs: B Johnson 4, J Akermanis 2, N Eagleton 2, A Cooney, M Boyd, M Hahn, S Higgins, F Ray. Brisbane: J Brennan 3, T Notting 3, J Brown 2, N Lappin, M Allan.

BEST - Western Bulldogs: B Johnson, L Gilbee, B Harris, N Eagleton, J Akermanis. Brisbane: J Charman, T Notting, N Lappin, J Brennan.

Umpires: M Stevic, R Chamberlain, S Wenn.

Official crowd: 29,873 at the Gabba.