THE BRISBANE Lions’ run of four wins came to a sudden halt against the hard-running Bulldogs on Saturday, with Ash McGrath lamenting his side’s inability to play the uncompromising footy of the past month on the MCG.

“I don’t think any of the boys managed to carry on that form today. The guys just looked a bit flat and the Western Bulldogs got the jump on us, attacked the footy a bit harder and pressured us up a bit more,” McGrath said following the 63-point defeat.

“We got smashed in the midfield, and once they got it out to their blokes out wide and were able to set up their running game, it was pretty much a nightmare for us blokes down back. They were just running it all the way down using their hands.”

McGrath had the unenviable task of minding the in-form Jason Akermanis for most of the second half. Having matched up on him occasionally in training, McGrath was familiar with the former Lion’s game, but he said it counted for little.

“It’s totally different to what happened today. When he played deeper I went to him, but when he went up the field I went to a few other guys,” he said.

“My form wasn’t that flash today. I played on a few different players early and then 'Aker' slipped me a few times and got a few goals.

“The Western Bulldogs are that type of team that, even if I had a metre on 'Aker', they’d still use him up because their kicking skills are really good and they always seem to find a target which makes it hard for defenders.”

In the absence of Darren Bradshaw, the Lions struggled to find avenues to goal other than Jonathan Brown, who finished with three goals.

“We can’t always look to 'Browny' all the time,” McGrath said.

“But just the pressure that the Bulldogs put on us made us handball a little bit too much and we just couldn’t get the ball moving well into the forward line.”

McGrath said the match had highlighted “a few things to work on” next week, but he was confident of regrouping for Saturday night’s home match against Adelaide.