Defender Darcy Gardiner conceded the Lions might have let their QClash boilover a fortnight ago get to their heads.

“It was our first win, everyone was quite happy — as you are with your first win of the season,” Gardiner said in the wake of Saturday night’s 53-point loss to the Western Bulldogs.

“I guess our preparation probably wasn’t as good leading into the Bulldogs game as the Gold Coast game was.

“That’s a big focus this week for the team to make sure they’re on top of it - don’t get ahead of ourselves, if we win or lose. We’ve just got to get back to what was working for us.”

The Lions face in-form Sydney, one of the AFL’s premier sides when it comes to contested football, at the Gabba on Sunday.

“We’re looking to fix what went wrong last week,” he said.

“We’ve got a lot of challenges early in the season so if we can stay positive and build through them, we’ve got plenty to look forward to.”

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