ALTHOUGH the Brisbane Lions have only won just the two games in the first half of season 2011, coach Michael Voss says he will not measure improvement by wins.

It has been a torrid start to the season for the Lions, with the club reaching the midway point on Sunday with a 61-point loss to the in-form Carlton.

For Voss, this is his worst start as coach, with the club's two wins only coming in the last month of football against North Melbourne and Adelaide in rounds nine and 10.

Heading into the second half of the year, Voss says it is important to look at the bigger picture.

"I think we've well and truly looked at our program and sort of thought, well we have to take a bigger picture view than what the week-to-week mode is," Voss said.

"The first part is that we've got to make sure If there's one area we've got to fix first it's making sure we get our hands on the footy a little bit earlier.

"We did that a bit today but then on the outside it sort of hurt us a bit so we've got to make sure that we stick to it and get that part right before we start expanding elsewhere."

Winning the 50-50 contests will be a key component of the Lions going forward this year.

In the past three weeks, the Lions have won a clearance from only 33 per cent of stoppages..

"I still think that winning the neutral footy is the most important," Voss said.

"What we haven't been too bad at, is getting the ball back off the opposition, even though it wasn't as good today, generally we've been pretty good and we've had to improve our ability to win the neutral footy.

"Whether that's in clearances or whether that's been contested footy we've had to get better at that, and that’s something that we've got to keep emphasising through our training because we can't continue to give our opponents chances and first looks at the footy because you've got to do too much work in defence."

Voss does admit that he has seen some improvements in their clearance work and ability to win the contested football.

The Lions were on par with the Blues in both those areas on Sunday, losing both the clearances 34 to 33, and the contested possession count 158 to 140.

"[The improvement] is a compliment to them but the backhander is then the ball left the area, we didn't get it," Voss said.

"You come against some good opposition and they put more together, more often at a greater intensity and that's something we've got to get better at."

The Lions will be keen to get off to a good start to the second half of the season with a win at the Gabba against Richmond next Saturday night.

Last time they met in round six, the Tigers took the chocolates, and forward Jack Riewoldt kicked five goals.

The Lions will head into the clash without key defender Daniel Merrett, and Voss said the midfield would need to lift to restrict the supply to the Tigers forward line.

"We've got to improve our midfield," Voss said.

"We've got a fairly young brigade in the midfield area that's emerging and that's an area that we've got to spend a bit of time on. If we can get that right and generate more ball going inside our 50, then it spends a little bit less time the other way. That always helps."