BRISBANE has lost all 11 of its first quarters this season, and captain Dayne Zorko says the primary cause is simple – a lack of composure.

The Lions were again smashed in the opening term on Sunday, giving North Melbourne a 33-point head-start at the first change that they never looked like making inroads on.

Dan McStay and Ben Keays missed simple set shots at goal, but they were only surface problems of a much bigger issue. 

"We're just lacking composure with the ball and really letting ourselves down," Zorko said. 

"With the heat of the game, the boys probably don't realise how much time they do have. 

"The opposition pressure is hot early, our pressure is hot early, we just feel like teams are working through that better than what we are at the moment.

"We've identified another area that we can grow on, and that's controlling the ball, having a bit of time with it. 

"We have more time than we think, and hopefully we can fix that up."

Zorko said after reviewing the 54-point loss on Tuesday morning, it was apparent the midfield was poor in the game-shaping first half. 

A second-half surge saw the Lions level up contested ball (135-all) and also reduced the margin at clearances (42-35), but the damage was done. 

"Especially the first quarter, we as a midfield group didn't work hard enough to level up that statistic (clearances)," Zorko said.

"Shaun Higgins we weren't able to stop and that falls back on to us as midfielders to try and get that balance right and we weren't able to do that.

"We needed to be switched on a lot more than we were in there. 

"We didn't engage, we didn't separate with our opponents and we gave them free run at the ball and they made us pay, which good teams do."

The Lions will enter Sunday's clash against Essendon minus some of their key personnel, with Charlie Cameron (foot) and Mitch Robinson (toe) certain to miss, while Allen Christensen (concussion), Hugh McCluggage (calf) and Jarrod Berry (hamstring) will all be tested.