Even though the Brisbane Lions were able to extract some revenge on the Gold Coast Suns with a commanding win in Round 21 last year, Assistant Coach Gary O’Donnell admits his team are still stung by their shock loss in QClash 1.

The Suns claimed a piece of history by defeating the Lions in the first ever meeting between the two Queensland-based AFL clubs in Round 7 last year.

Even now, most Lions fans still speak about the amount of hurt and disappointment that particular loss generated - while others simply try to forget it.

Speaking with ABC’s Grandstand program on Friday morning, O’Donnell said it was critical for the Lions to ‘stamp their authority’ as the best AFL side in Queensland this Saturday night.

“It’s important that we show who’s boss,” O’Donnell said.

“Last year in in the corresponding game - I think it was about Round 7 when we played them - it was almost as if we had stage fright.”

“They ended up smashing us in the clearances - it was 60-30 I think. We just couldn’t get our hands on the ball.”

“Hopefully it’s a different game this year in that we can hit the ground running and actually start playing from the first siren.”

The former Essendon Captain revealed that Round 7 loss still served as motivation for the team.

“It was very embarrassing (to get beaten by) a team that had only been around for five minutes. Although we’re a young side as well, we certainly had enough experience to win that game. Our players had to lick a few wounds,” he said.

“We were very disappointed, hence the second game we won by 10 goals because we went into it thinking ‘Geez we can’t let it happen again’.”

“We’re of the same attitude this time as well.”

O’Donnell also said that the Match Committee’s decision to omit promising ruckman Billy Longer for QClash 3 was based more on trialling different set-ups in the long-term absence of Matthew Leuenberger.

“We’ve got two or three (players) in the side at the moment that we think can stop-gap in the ruck,” O’Donnell said.

“But we’ve been really impressed with the way that Billy has gone about his footy in the first 4-5 months he’s been with us. He’s going to be a really good player for us.”

“How we set up while Leuenberger is out will be week-to-week, I would have thought - and Billy will play a big part in that.”