The Brisbane Lions were so unselfish in the win over Hawthorn on Sunday night, coach Chris Fagan couldn't bear to watch.

After hammering home all week that his team had to look to give the ball off more, Charlie Cameron took it to the extreme in the third quarter.

Taking a running mark on the edge of the goalsquare, the livewire forward played on and chipped the ball backwards to skipper Dayne Beams, who - 30m out and on a slight angle - he thought was in a better position.

"I couldn't work out why Charlie Cameron passed that ball back," Fagan said with a laugh following the 56-point win.

"I went bananas in the (coach’s) box.

"I thought ‘Why? He's marked it in the 10m square and he's just kicked it back’. 

"Thank goodness Beams kicked it, I couldn't look.

"I know what he was doing. We had a big theme on that during the week. 

"I'll give him a pat on the back for that."

Dayne Zorko said in a press conference on Tuesday the Lions had spoken about being more selfless following last week's loss to the Western Bulldogs. 

One player who carried that out was lanky forward Eric Hipwood, who sprayed the ball everywhere last week but was on song against the Hawks.

Not only did he kick 4.3, but he also squared a pass to Tom Cutler during the third term when he had every right to have a shot at goal.

Fagan said the team's first victory for 2018 was the "nourishment" it needed after so many narrow losses.

He praised the pressure in the forward half of the ground and said Brisbane would continue to use its three-pronged tall forward line of Hipwood, Dan McStay and Oscar McInerney. 

"The view might be if you play all those big guys in the forward line you might not be able to put pressure on … but it straightens you up a bit and everyone know where the ball's going," Fagan said.

"I think it helps you with pressure. So far so good.

"Some teams have got great little quick blokes, or medium-sized blokes, you've just got to work out what suits your team.

"For us it seems like that suits us.

"Will it stay that way? The game keeps changing. 

"There's nothing wrong with challenging convention and playing a couple of 200cm blokes in your forward line is there?"