The Lions' captain was bristling and pulled no punches at the team's recovery session on Sunday morning, just 12 hours after falling to Richmond by 48 points at the Gabba.
After drawing to within 14 points early in the final quarter, the Lions "rolled over" as the Tigers booted six successive goals to run away easy victors.
It came just six days after West Coast slammed home 11 final quarter goals in a 98-point thumping of the Lions.
Brown has had enough.
He said it was time to stop talking and start acting, and implored his teammates to lift for the final month of the season or risk writing 2012 off as a failure.
"To walk away and lose by 50-odd points after getting within 14 points early in the last quarter is a pretty embarrassing effort to be honest," Brown said.
"We need to have a look at ourselves as a playing group and step up to the plate, not roll over and say 'this is too hard'.
"We've got to show our character, and there's character in the group there's no question about that, but we've got to be able to show it for that two hours on game day."
Brown said the Lions' effort had been inconsistent over the past month, and apart from five minutes here and there against Richmond, was no different on Saturday night.
He said their pressure had dropped away terribly and it was not good enough.
"[It's] Showing the will to fight, and we haven't been doing that enough as a playing group," he said.
"When things get hard we haven't stepped up to the plate in regards to pressure. That's something we're very disappointed about.
"There's only so much you can talk about it, there comes a time when you've got to go out there and do it."
After winning just 11 games in 2010-2011, the Lions have shown signs of improving with seven wins this season.
They have a 6-0 record against bottom four teams, but have been badly exposed by teams above them on the ladder, sporting a 1-11 mark and an average losing margin of 51 points.
Brown said the final month was about building character and bridging the gap to the top eight.
"We've made ground this year to date, but we have to finish the year off strongly otherwise we're gong backwards again," he said.
"We've got to start building our character within our side when things get hard and that's something we need to get out of the last month. It's hugely important.
"If we want to go forward and be a future finals team, we've got to start beating those sides around us. Don't worry about top four sides; they're in another realm at the moment from where we are.
"We've got opportunities now and Carlton's one of those teams this week."
Brown said the onus fell on every player, from the most experienced to the least, to lift.
Michael Whiting covers Brisbane Lions news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_mikewhiting
