BRISBANE Lions captain Jonathan Brown has laid down the next challenge to his teammates after their 43 point win over Essendon at the Gabba: winning away from home.

The Lions face Richmond at the MCG next Saturday and Brown says they have to start rectifying their poor record on the road.

“We need to win away from home and start elevating ourselves,” he said.

The skipper was embarrassed by last week’s 93-point loss to Geelong, but was heartened by the team’s response at training during the week.

“The guys trained really well on Thursday all the way through the session; I thought that was a really good sign,” Brown said.

“I just don’t think [our consistency during training] has  been there the whole season and that’s carried over into games, that patchiness.”
 
The Lions benefitted from having eight different goalkickers against the Bombers. Brown was pleased with the contribution, especially considering the reliance his team sometimes has on himself and fellow forward Daniel Bradshaw.

“I think to kick some running goals is something we’ve really been looking for. We really need to get some good running and crumbing goals and that was evident tonight so it was really pleasing,” Brown said.

Brown played his best game of the year, picking up 24 disposals and kicking 5.0 from all parts of the ground.

“I felt good tonight and was able to play a sort of good natural centre half-forward role, able to cover the ground and get around and it worked well.

“I thought our movement into the forward line was a little bit better,” Brown said.

A quieter than usual pre-season has kept the spearhead fresh and Brown says he is now reaping the benefits.

“The body’s pretty healthy so I’m able to play my natural role which I enjoy and it’s good for the side … Braddy’s able to play a little bit closer and just move around as we please.”