THE BRISBANE Lions have gone back to basics ahead of playing Port Adelaide on Saturday after being thumped by Gold Coast last weekend.
Coach Justin Leppitsch said despite starting his coaching career with three losses he was not panicking and the fix was quite simple.
The Suns hammered the Lions 171-136 in contested possessions last Saturday and Leppitsch said that was the cornerstone of a turnaround against the Power.
"That's an uncompetitive number," Leppitsch said before Thursday morning's main training session at the Gabba.
"I would have thought going back to basics, that number needs to improve."
The Lions have endured a difficult week with star midfielder Daniel Rich rupturing his ACL and going in for surgery on Thursday, while Josh Green (hamstring) and Daniel Merrett (suspension) will also miss the match at Adelaide Oval.
"I'm not concerned at all," Leppitsch said.
"I think we've only really had the one ordinary game last week; we lacked energy. I think we've been quite competitive up until then.
"We've created a group that, win, lose or draw, we have the same mood throughout the week. I want to keep a very level group. I don't want to us to be driven by emotion game to game."
With three automatic changes, Leppitsch said he was likely to continue to go down the youth track.
In the first three rounds of the season he has unveiled Michael Close, James Aish and Lewis Taylor to senior footy, and persisted with inexperienced Marco Paparone.
West Australian draftee Nick Robertson is a likely inclusion, while Tom Cutler is right in the reckoning after a super display in the reserves last weekend.
Leppitsch said it would be nice to have some more experience, but the likes of Brent Staker (calf) and Luke McGuane (knee) are still on the sidelines.
"It'd be nice to keep it (young players) at four or five if you can - when you get to seven or so you're getting a bit young - but sometimes you have to play who's available and who's best available," he said.
"There's some kids in our twos that are really playing well at the moment, you have to reward them also."
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