"Stick by us" - that's the message from wounded Captain Tom Rockliff as the Lions look to bounce back against North Melbourne next Sunday.
Rockliff, who will miss 4-6 weeks of football after breaking ribs and puncturing a lung in last night's loss to Collingwood, said his team knew where it needed to improve to bounce back against the Kangaroos.
The Skipper heaped praise on the 31,240 crowd who turned out for the opening round blockbuster - the biggest Gabba crowd in five years - but said fans deserved better than what the Lions served up.
"We got smashed in contested footy, plain and simple," Rockliff told lions.com.au.
"It's something that was a major focus all preseason, so to have a massive crowd turn out and then to play like that is unacceptable, even if we fought back late.
"We all take ownership of that and we know what we have to do to turn it around.
"The boys know what we have to fix and those things will be worked on during the week so we can go to Melbourne and put in a huge effort, then come back to the Gabba in a fortnight to put on a show against Richmond when we hope just as big a crowd will turn out.
"It was a huge thrill to play in front of such a big crowd last night even though it wasn't the result we wanted - and we want all of Brisbane to Get To The Gabba again."
