Having come from his post-match meeting with his players, Voss said he had praised the intensity that saw them lay 67 tackles for the game to the Demons' 58. But he said he expected his side and each individual in it to be able to maintain their work rate for the entire match, saying the Lions' two-goal-to-five second term had cost them the match.
"We put in the effort and that’s what makes you crook in the guts. Last week [against the Western Bulldogs] we didn't put in the effort, and you walk away and probably don't feel as bad because you didn't deserve it," Voss said.
"But when you walk away from this game the second quarter was really important but apart from that I thought we did very well.
"Our pressure was right up there again and that's been benchmarked against some of the better teams in the competition, so it's been a genuine strength of ours."
Voss pinpointed half-forward as the area his side particularly fell down in, saying Melbourne's defenders had too often been able to take uncontested marks and rebound the ball under no pressure.
Voss made it clear that while his side is young and missing skipper Jonathan Brown through injury, he not only believes it has the talent to compete with the competition's better sides, he expects it to.
"While there are other people that don’t have expectations of ourselves we certainly do and we can't accept that," he said.
"There were good parts to our game individually but why we exist in a team framework of 18 players is that everyone needs to do it.
"We just had too many [players] at the wrong time of the game not thinking their way through it, but the reality is that for us to be a good team we’ve got to be able to pull that together more as a 21 v 21.
"Because at the moment we're just giving sides slight windows and good teams will go through those windows. We've just got to make sure we can capitalise on the work rate we've been able to produce so far."
However, Voss was buoyed by the performance of debutant Jared Polec, who had a game-high 11 possessions in the first quarter and won a fierce head-on contest with Rohan Bail in his defensive 50.
"He had a big ball there 30 metres out in front of his own goals and he stuck his head over the footy," Voss said of Polec.
"He's got the capability to be able to do that but he’s going to be a wonderful ball-user and decision-maker and will add some genuine leg speed to our group."
Voss also praised third-game tall Ryan Lester who played a solid game in defence, spending time on Jack Watts, while he said Mitch Clark looked as though he was ready to fill the hole Brown's injury had left in the Lions' forward line.
"[Clark has] been under a little bit of heat the last couple of weeks, he's been working really hard but sort of letting himself down in a couple of areas," Voss said.
"But I thought today was a really great step in the right direction for him. If we've got him being able to step up in that part of the ground he will be a difficult opponent to play on because he does move very well."
The Lions have the bye in round four and Voss said he would use it to give his players a few days off given their next bye does not come until round 18.
