The Brisbane Lions have learned from their loss to Richmond on Sunday and will be better prepared for the qualifying final rematch at the Gabba on September 7, says captain Dayne Zorko.
The Tigers taught the Lions a pre-finals lesson at the MCG, skating to a four-goal quarter-time lead before hanging on to win by 27 points and jumping into the top four.
It was Richmond's 13th straight win against Brisbane, but one Zorko said gave his team great belief.
"We started really well but we weren't able to do it for the majority of that first quarter and that's where they got on top of us," Zorko said.
"We sort of played into their hands and gave them exactly what they wanted.
"We took a lot of learnings out of that.
"After quarter-time I thought we got back to the way we like to play our football and won a lot of key areas that we were really pleased with.
"There's still a lot of work to do but it certainly gave us great belief."
Brisbane launched its first finals campaign since 2009 with a club breakfast on Tuesday morning, followed by a light training session.
The players will have time off from Thursday to Sunday – the exact same format they used after a mid-season loss to Carlton that preceded a nine-game winning streak.
Zorko said playing in front of a sold-out Gabba against Geelong, followed by the almost 77,000-strong crowd on Sunday had prepared the Lions for September.
"I thought we had a lot of great players on the weekend but we just, collectively, in that first quarter we weren't good enough at nullifying their fast breaks and that's something that we certainly will review.
"They'll take a lot out of it, we certainly know we have already.
"We've just got to go out and play our process and do it from the word go.
"We can't wait until quarter-time to click into gear.
"I'm sure we're going to come up with a really good gameplan.
"It's certainly going to make for an interesting clash in a couple of weeks."