HE STANDS 204cm tall, but that's not the only reason Lions ruckman Matthew Leuenberger stood head and shoulders above his teammates at the Gabba on Saturday night.

While the Lions were getting a thorough AFL lesson in a 65-point loss to the Sydney Swans, Leuenberger was enhancing his reputation in the face of the onslaught.

He finished with 22 disposals, seven marks and a match-high 34 hitouts.

Leuenberger was the only Lion who could decisively say he won his position, opposed to Swans ruckman Mark Seaby.

But despite the 22-year-old getting his hand on the ball first more often than not, the Lions were smashed in the clearances early, and the Swans capitalised.

The visitors won the clearances 14-2 in the first quarter and went to the opening break with a 37-point advantage they never relinquished.

Leuenberger said the Lions were second to the footy most of the match.

"I don't know why that was the case. The first quarter we just couldn't get our hands on it," Leuenberger said.

"It felt like there were extra numbers out there and they were getting a run on and doing as they pleased.

"They were able to get their hands on it and generate the ball moving forward their way and we struggled to nullify them defensively and they blew us away early."

After successive wins over North Melbourne and Adelaide, Leuenberger said there was no indication pre-match of the Lions' poor first half showing.

He said the Swans were ready for a contest and "we weren't".

"I can't put my finger on why we were so poor in the first quarter. Maybe it was an attitude thing, maybe we thought it was going to happen after the past two weeks and took it for granted that you have to work to get in a winning position," he said.

Leuenberger said coach Michael Voss was quite positive after the match, particularly with the improved second half.

"It's going to be a good learning curve for us to go over the game and look at the first half and see what went wrong and rectify that,” he said.

"I'd imagine we'd move on pretty quickly and move on to Carlton [next Sunday]."