MIDFIELDER Daniel Rich is adamant the Brisbane Lions have progressed despite their slow start to the season.
Ahead of hosting Collingwood at the Gabba on Saturday night, the Lions are 2-4 and have fallen well short against the competition's elite teams.
They have wins against winless Melbourne and Gold Coast but have been thumped by Carlton (91 points), Geelong (38 points in the wet) and most recently Essendon (67 points).
But Rich defended his team's form, saying they were well advanced on 2011 when the Lions won just four games but were highly competitive against the competition pacesetters.
"Not at all. I think it's the opposite, we've actually taken steps forward compared to last year," Rich said.
"The scoreboard has told a different story I suppose, in a few ways. Last year there were times when we were protecting the scoreboard which made it look like that, but we definitely haven't gone backwards, the group's gone forward."
The 21-year-old has been one of the Lions' best this season and said their problems were easily fixed.
"On the weekend we got beaten in most areas but the week before (against Geelong), stats-wise, we weren't too bad," he said.
"It's more about composure under pressure, skills under pressure, and the finishing side of things as well as the attitude to get those things started.
"Hopefully we can turn those things around and the scoreboard will take care of itself."
Small forward Todd Banfield agreed, saying a change in fortunes was not far away.
"Against Geelong we won most of the stats but couldn't hit the scoreboard," Banfield said.
"Against Essendon we didn't win any stats we pride ourselves on so it's a big thing for us to come out this weekend and win some of the major stats like contested footy and hopefully that can lead to some inside 50s and we can kick some goals.
"They're (Collingwood) a great team and the clubs have had some good rivalries for many years now."
One player the Lions will welcome back for the Magpies clash is tagger Andrew Raines who has served his one-match suspension for striking Geelong's Joel Selwood.
Raines will be assigned the run-with role with either Dane Swan or Scott Pendlebury and Rich said his toughness was needed in the Lions' set-up.
"They've got quite a few guys in good form so it'll be good to have Rainesy back. You know that he's going to get the job done. He's the type of guy that if you assign him something he manages to get the job done, as we've seen.
"It's a good challenge if we want to get to where we want to as a club and playing group and we've got to be able to beat these teams.
"They're a good team and other good teams have exploited them in different ways and that's what we'll be trying to do as well."
Michael Whiting covers Brisbane Lions news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_mikewhiting
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL
