BRISBANE Lions’ ruckman Jamie Charman believes midfield deficiencies - and the absence of Simon Black - cost his side victory against the Geelong in their round seven tussle at Skilled Stadium on Saturday.

The Lions trailed the undefeated Cats by just five points going into the final term but ended up losing by 27 points, the home side continuing the flawless defence of its flag campaign.

“He’s (Simon Black) a sensational player and a great ball-getter," Charman said.

"In the last quarter, he’s always working hard so it would have been great to have him for that.

“We really got beaten in clearances at midfield. They got away with about 10 compared to our two in the last quarter, and that hurt us and put our defence under a lot of pressure.”

Black was a late withdrawal, as was star forward Jonathan Brown. Worryingly for the Brisbane Lions’ faithful, coach Leigh Matthews revealed after the game that Black is suffering from the early symptoms of osteitis pubis and will miss at least a few weeks. Brown, on the other hand, has a quad muscle injury. Charman admitted that his presence was also very much missed by the Lions.

“You had (Daniel) Bradshaw under pressure from both (Tom) Harley and (Matthew) Scarlett, so it makes it hard," he said.

The 25-year-old believes Geelong’s disciplined game plan is the key to their success.

“Their structures are so good around the ball. They might lose a quarter, but they’re pretty strong in their set ups. When you come to the last quarter, it ends up wearing teams down. They hold it all game, and their persistence pays off and it seems to break open for them.”

Charman was keen to laud the performances of the team’s young players in the absence of key personnel, and in particular heaped praise on 23-year-olds Joel McDonald and Anthony Corrie.

“McDonald is playing really good footy at the moment. He’s playing sensational down back," Charman said.

"Anthony Corrie’s just been stepping up each week. He’s been really exciting. There’s so many positives that you can’t get too down on yourself that you lost.”

Charman has been selected for the extended Dream Team Squad who will take on Victoria in next week’s Hall of Fame Tribute game at the MCG. If teammate Black was fit, the pair could have been playing alongside each other.

“'Blacky' likes to test himself against the best, and I think he will be disappointed to miss this one," he said.

Charman believes he’s lucky to be short-listed, and would relish the opportunity to play against his teammate and Victorian captain Brown if the star forward recovers from injury in time.

“I’m very, very lucky to get the opportunity. I suppose I haven’t been playing all that well," he said.

"There’s probably a few other ruckman that would have deserved to be in there. I’m really looking forward to it. Just learning things off guys you don’t normally get to play with, having a different coach and just changing it up for a week will be good.”