The Brisbane Lions' NEAFL side thrashed the Gold Coast Suns to the tune of 92 points on Saturday at Burpengary.

Despite the comfortable win, the Lions will be rueing the missed opportunities which saw them end with the slightly disappointing score line of 12.24 (96) to the Gold Coast’s 0.4 (4).

Their inaccuracy aside, Lions’ coach Mitch Hahn was altogether pleased with his team’s dominant performance after their week off in Round 5.

“It was sort of tough conditions with the wind the way that it was. Ideally, if we finished our shots on goal it would have been a much bigger victory,” Hahn told neafl.com.au.

“I’m pretty pleased with the way the players smashed in and hunted the football early, particularly in the first half.

“We had 39 tackles at halftime which was a fantastic effort when we had a lot of the ball, so I was pleased with that part of the game.”

For the SUNS, it was tough going from the outset, naming only 11 AFL-listed players to Brisbane’s 19.

Their fortunes then took a further turn for the worse in the second quarter when Mackenzie Willis went down after a tackle, clutching his knee and having to be assisted from the field.

He didn’t emerge from the sheds until partway through the third term – with his right knee wrapped and a pair of crutches under his arms – meaning the Gold Coast were left to play over half the game with only 10 AFL-listed players.

While his team came away with the four points, Hahn did empathise with the Gold Coast’s injury woes.

“In all, it’s a pretty hard game to judge in terms of the opposition copping a couple of injuries early, which made it really hard for them,” he said.

“We had a lot of AFL experience in our team today; there was 878 games of AFL experience.”

While Brisbane were incredibly impressive in defence – limiting the Gold Coast to only four points, which included scoreless second and fourth terms – the Lions were their own worst enemy.

Inaccuracy off the boot – both in terms of scoring and ball movement down the field – plagued the Lions throughout the game.

This inefficiency was best evidenced by the string of five consecutive behinds the Lions kicked to start the third quarter.

“At times I thought we could have moved the ball forward a lot quicker than what we did,” Hahn said.

“We may have built up uncontested marks and went sideways a little bit too much rather than facing the game and going forward.”

The energy and dedication displayed by the Lions today may in part be attributable to the inspiration they gained in seeing Matt Eagles and Oscar McInerney achieve their AFL debuts over the last few weeks.

“It’s fantastic…for the guys to be able to see if you play well and you perform at this level for a period of time then your opportunity will come. Fages (Chris Fagan) has been really strong on that.” Hahn said.

“It was great for the guys to be able to see Matty Eagles and he did well last week and hopefully he does well again this week.

“But it certainly shows our guys that the right attitude is to go “if we tip in we’re a chance of getting selected.”

Marco Paparone will be one Lion hoping to win his spot back in the AFL side and if his performance of 36 disposals, 10 marks and one goal is any indication, his foot is well and truly in the door.

“(Marco’s) one of those guys that we probably would have liked to use the ball a little bit better but he’s improving his contest work and his running is back to where it was at when he was playing good AFL football,” Hahn said.

“I certainly think that if, in the next couple of weeks, he keeps presenting and playing the way he is that his name will start to get put up there for senior selection.”

For the SUNS, it was young Jacob Dawson who led the way and pushed his own case for an AFL debut not too far down the track.

The 18-year-old lodged an impressive 31 disposals, three marks, five tackles and five clearances in his side’s tough loss.

To stay in touch with the top of the table, the SUNS will have to regroup quickly before they head to the Northern Territory to take on the Thunder at home, while the Lions face Redland at Coorparoo.

BRISBANE 3.5 6.11 8.20 12.24 (96)
GOLD COAST 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.4 (4) 

GOALS – Brisbane: R Lester 2 J Walker 2 M Paparone 1 T Bell 1 B Keays 1 C Beams 1 J Barrett 1 C Ballenden 1 A Smith 1 M Hinge 1.
BEST – Brisbane: R Lester J Walker R Bewick R Bastinac S Mayes C Ballenden. Gold Coast: J Dawson J Schoenfeld J Scrimshaw.