BRISBANE Lions coach Leigh Matthews has refused to blame anyone for errors which might have cost his side victory at the MCG on Sunday.

The Lions succumbed to Melbourne by a point at the MCG but three crucial events all conspired to ruin their day.

In the second quarter the Lions became the second team of the round to infringe the AFL’s new interchange rule, in the process costing themselves a behind after Paul Wheatley’s free shot at goal skewed to the left.

Then in the third term, a Daniel Bradshaw snap at goal appeared to register a behind but was called out of bounds on the full, although the coach admitted he was “a long way from it”.

“It doesn’t matter … the goal umpire’s there to adjudicate and he’s adjudicated,” Matthews said.

Then midway through the frenetic final term Lions' physio Nathan Carloss cost his side a 50m penalty by wandering across the mark on the wing. Demon Lynden Dunn kicked a point from the resultant free when the man on the mark was moved back inside Melbourne's forward 50m arc.

But Matthews simply branded the loss “very disappointing” in his post-match press conference and refused to single out any individual incident from a match littered with drama. “They were our mistakes and that’s the rules,” he said.

“Sometimes, you know, sometimes you have an interchange shot at goal and a physio runs across the mark or something and you have two free kicks against you, it’s sort of a bit of an indication of the type of day that’s being had.

“We sort of scrounged our way back and I guess when you’re 11 points in front with a few minutes to go, it’s doubly disappointing that you lose from that position because we almost could have scrambled a win from a pretty ordinary performance.”

Matthews says it was his side’s inability to overcome the mental challenge of playing the bottom side on the ladder that had proven costly.

He said that while the Demons had been pretty good on the day, his team had struggled to switch on after overcoming fellow top-four aspirant Adelaide the previous week.

“I said to the team before the game; you kind of knew that this was one of those games where it was almost like the spotlight you’re under was pretty mild today,” Matthews said.

“You’re playing a team who’s struggling to win and so the question was would the culture of the group be strong enough when you haven’t got those external, competitive stimulants, and basically we weren’t.”

With the loss, the Lions missed an opportunity to further press their claims for a top-four position and slipped to an 8-6 record.

They will now have a 13-day break before taking on Essendon at Telstra Dome on July 12, and Matthews was asked if players’ minds could prematurely wander towards the mid-season bye. “Not mature competitors,” Matthews said.

“But those who are not mature competitors might.”

Asked if his team might possess some players who weren’t yet mature competitors, the four-time premiership coach replied: “I don’t know … there’s no litmus test for that.”