JONATHAN Brown says the Brisbane Lions must use the back half of this season to build towards 2012, conceding they are out of the finals race.

The Lions are languishing in 15th place with a 2-9 record and will face Richmond at the Gabba on Saturday night without vice-captain Jed Adcock (finger), who joined a long injury list this week.

Brown said despite the difficult season to date, the Lions had some good building blocks in place to move forward with.

The captain said their competitiveness and defensive pressure had been "quite good", but the next step forward was improving their ball use.

"Clearly we're not going to play finals, so you're not working on that. We've got to have the big picture in mind and building towards having a good season next year and starting the year well," he said.

"We clearly need to finish off with wins and play the back half of the year with a more complete brand of footy, and certainly moving the ball better.

"Our competitive baseline has been very good for the first half of the year but now we've got to start working on executing it a bit better in the second half of the season and start to get that pillar in place and build towards better things.

"Hopefully we can get guys back from injury and put together a side similar to what will be out there at the start of next season."

Adcock goes in for surgery on a broken finger today, and while his time out is yet to be determined, his absence adds to a list of senior players that have missed extended parts of the season.

Brown missed six matches after suffering facial fractures in the round one loss to Fremantle, while vice-captains Daniel Merrett (back stress fractures, up to 10 weeks), Josh Drummond (knee and quad, played just two matches) and Tom Rockliff (calf, missed two) have all sat out.

Brown said the season had been frustrating and the Lions' confidence had taken a big hit.

"You can either put the white flag up or you can build towards something and that keeps you motivated," he said.

"Clearly it's been disappointing, and going through tough times, you can either sook about it and whinge and give up, or you can work your way through it and it makes you a tougher character."

After returning from injury against North Melbourne in round nine, Brown described his own form as solid without being spectacular.

He has kicked eight goals in four matches since returning and said some more opportunities would help his cause.

In Sunday's 61-point loss against Carlton, the Blues continually double and triple teamed Brown, but the Lions captain said his midfielders had few other options but to bomb the ball long as most players were behind the ball trying to stop the flood of possession against them.

"Clearly our numbers are down on how often we've gone forward in the last month and we need to pick that up," he said.

"On the weekend we played a very good side, one that I think will be thereabouts in late September, and we were certainly outclassed by them. "

Michael Whiting covers Brisbane Lions news for afl.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @mike_whiting