PEARCE Hanley has no doubt the Brisbane Lions were on track to defeat Collingwood on Saturday night well before the Magpies were ravaged by injury.

The Lions won their seventh game of the season with a 67-point victory that came after Collingwood lost Ben Reid (hamstring) in the opening minutes, Travis Cloke (ankle) in the second quarter and Dayne Beams (knee) in the third.

They also lost skipper Scott Pendlebury just before the first bounce with a quad injury.

But Hanley, who was one of the Lions' best with 34 disposals and a goal, gave the Magpies no outs, saying his team had their measure anyway.

"I thought we cracked in before their injuries started happening," Hanley said at the Gabba on Monday.

"That wouldn't have helped them, but our pressure was really good, clearances, contested footy, right from the get-go.

"It was unfortunate, it's not nice to see so many fellas go off injured, but I think we were well on our way to winning anyway."

The Lions not only dominated overall disposals (430-318), but also comfortably won the clearances (39-27) and contested possessions (121-105) that Hanley talked about.

The Irishman said he had no idea the Magpies were dropping so quickly and it made little difference to the Lions' mindset.

"I didn't know until after the game they were missing three, and two relatively early," he said.

"It doesn't cross your mind, but it was raised they did lose numbers and that we would be able to run them off their legs because they had limited rotations, but it doesn't affect the way we go about it."

After running Magpie tagger Brent Macaffer ragged for four quarters, the red-hot Hanley said he could not wait to face Fremantle stopper Ryan Crowley at the Gabba on Sunday.

In round 14, Crowley limited the classy midfielder to a paltry nine disposals as the Dockers routed the Lions in wet conditions at Patersons Stadium.

"I can't wait," Hanley said of the rematch.

"Macaffer last year got a hold of me up here in the wet (keeping him to 11 touches), so I was really focused going in, I didn't want that to happen again.

"Crowley did the same thing earlier in the year so I'm definitely looking to make amends this weekend.

"He's strong, he's fit, he's tough and he's diligent, and he gets a lot of help from his teammates, I found that out the last time I played on him. It's going to be tough."

Hanley said his improved work-rate through all four quarters had helped him turn around a slow start to the season.

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