FINAL scorelines can sometimes deceive, but coach Chris Fagan said Brisbane was completely outplayed by Geelong in its 71-point preliminary final thrashing.
The Lions had started the game comparatively spritely, but wilted under the steely Cats pressure, particularly in the second half.
"They outplayed us in every facet of the game, really. The contest, their team defence tonight was excellent, the way they moved the ball was outstanding," Fagan said.
"It's hard to know whether the two finals we played in, where we had to go to the wire every week, what sort of toll that takes on the group, mentally and physically. I don't know, there perhaps is, when you have to back up and travel again."
Tall forward Dan McStay has been the centre of trade scrutiny for much of the year, with Fagan all but conceding the 27-year-old would be on the move.
"I don't know, because Dan hasn't told me. I suspect if he was going to be a Brisbane player next year, we would know that by now," he said.
"If Collingwood's the club, then Collingwood's the club. That wouldn't surprise me, but we haven't had the conversation.
"You should talk to our list management team about [who the Lions are targeting]. I'm not prepared to comment on potential trades from other clubs."
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Fagan said the Lions struggled to cope with Geelong's tactics in defence, pushing Rhys Stanley into the backline after centre bounces to allow Tom Stewart to roam, with Mark Blicavs then looking after ruck duties in attack.
"Their tactic of dropping their ruckman (Stanley) behind the ball meant it was 7v6 a lot of the time, they managed to intercept mark our entries," he said.
"We bombed the ball too much when we had an extra number at the stoppage, we should have been shaping the ball, but we bombed it in and kicked it to their numbers, and they were able to run an overlap and get the better of us in that regard.
"We tried a lot of things tonight, to stop that, it wasn't as if we weren't aware of it, but pretty much at quarter-time and half-time we tried to address it.
"They've got a magnificent weapon in Mark Blicavs who enables them to do some things other teams can't do. The way they used him tonight and their ruckman, to assist their players into freeing Stewart up, was great coaching."
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Despite the heavy defeat, Brisbane will take heart from this year's finals series, having shaken the straight sets exit monkey off the back with two stirring, underdog victories.
"I haven't had a chance to speak to [the players] yet, but it'll be a message of optimism, mixed in with a little bit of disappointment from tonight, that's how we'll treat it," Fagan said.
"There's been a lot of good things that have happened this year – tonight wasn't one of them – so we shouldn't not talk about those things.
"But we should talk about the learnings we get from playing against a great side like Geelong, who just played a brilliant finals game tonight and just look in great shape for next week."