WITH their season draw finally about to open up, coach Justin Leppitsch has described the Brisbane Lions' final quarter fadeout against Hawthorn as ‘a stone in his shoe’.
The Lions were ultra competitive for three-and-a-half quarters, but the Hawks slammed on nine last-quarter goals to run out 48-point victors.
Despite a rare win in contested ball (156-152), and a vast improvement after three straight floggings, it was their ninth loss in 10 matches this season.
Leppitsch was left to lament a string of costly turnovers and an inability to finish in front of goal. The final tally of 13.9 looks good, but the Lions missed some gettable shots and missed some easy targets inside forward 50.
"We're still making a few too many errors, a few fundamentals of the game; missing the handball, kick, things like that," Leppitsch said.
"They (Hawthorn) don't make many blues like that - they see the target and hit it most times. (A) very experienced unit, obviously. Too good."
Leppitsch said the late flurry by the Hawks was annoying, particularly considering the improved baseline effort.
"It's not like it's a huge issue but it's a stone in your shoe, when you finish like that.
"I'd rather a bad last 10 minutes than a bad last half. I don't know what to feel about it, to be perfectly honest.
"I just hope we don't carry that into next week and let that despair get us down."
After a brutal draw over the first 10 weeks, the Lions play Carlton, Fremantle, Richmond and Gold Coast in their next five matches.
They would expect to be competitive in all and sneak a couple of wins.
Leppitsch said the Hawks taught his team a valuable lesson ahead of the more friendly stretch.
"Our fixture softens up pretty much for the rest of the season," he said.
"That's no disrespect to the opposition, I'm just talking about ladder position of teams and where they're at right now.
"Now we've got seven day breaks until our bye, so we get some good continuity in our training.
"A few of those things go our way, that doesn't mean we necessarily win, but it could help."
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