After a second win in as many weeks, to go with back-to-back travel, the Lions have started to gather momentum after a slow start to the season.

"I feel like that's one of the best games we've played in a long time," Fagan said.

"We've played some good games, but that was a pretty special sort of effort I think, and particularly in Lachie Neale's 250th."

Neale, who gathered 24 disposals and eight clearances in the milestone, was playing through soreness after tweaking his ankle again last week.

"He hurt his ankle a few weeks ago, and he gave it another little tweak last week and we only had six days of getting it right, so our medical team did a great job and Lachie did a great job himself," Fagan said of his co-captain.

"He's one of the toughest players I've ever come across I think in footy, he was so determined to play, did everything to get his ankle right during the week, and he's done that a couple of weeks in a row now."

While Neale is typically the star of the show in the middle of the ground, it was a standard-setting performance from Cam Rayner in the opening quarter that drew a smile from Fagan.

Rayner's 12 disposals and six clearances in the first term gave the Lions ascendancy at the source, from which the rest of the game flowed.

"Rayner, it was exciting to see, wasn't it?" Fagan said.

"I think he was a bit disappointed with his game last week, he's probably one of our few players who was a little bit quiet against North (Melbourne), so he was keen to step up."

Goodwin admitted that his side was beaten "in all phases of the game" in the loss, but refused to use fatigue as an excuse after three games in 13 days.

"They punished us around the ball, I thought they were certainly harder, they tackled better, they won the spilt ball better, they did a lot of things right," Goodwin said of the Lions' performance.

Without Kysaiah Pickett for the match due to suspension, the Demons also lost experienced defender Christian Salem early in the game to a hamstring injury.

"We'll get that scanned but he'll be out for a little bit of time, obviously a hamstring… but clearly missing a guy like that in your back half, you become pretty inexperienced behind the ball," Goodwin said.