Over the past three weeks, the Brisbane Lions’ fate has largely been determined in the opening 20 minutes of each match.

Last Saturday night at the Gabba, Collingwood silenced the crowd early with the opening five goals of the match in an almost identical opening to that experienced the week earlier against Essendon at Etihad Stadium.

Even back in Round 5 against Geelong in atrocious conditions, the Lions were left goalless until the 20-minute mark of the third term, by which stage the contest was effectively over.

In fact, the Lions have conceded 18 goals and scored just six themselves from their past three first quarters -equating to an average quarter time deficit of more than 24 points.

As part of the regular Vero Coaches Wrap segment on LIONS TV, Assistant Coach Adrian Fletcher said it was important that the Lions start strongly this Sunday at the Gabba against Greater Western Sydney.

“We’ve got to get some intensity (at training) so we come into the game feeling good about ourselves,” Fletcher told LIONS TV.

“Obviously when we get to the first quarter, we’ve got to build our game with our attack on the footy, our hard ball gets, and our intent in our tackles when we don’t win the ball.”

“We need to put the opposition under pressure. If they keep getting uncontested possessions, then they can build their game and we can’t.”

“We’ve done it in quarters, but we need to do it over a full game.”

Fletcher expected the Lions will be in for a tough contest against the AFL’s newest team, who will be chock full of confidence after securing their first four points last week.

“GWS stayed with Carlton for a half (in Round 6), and obviously had their first win against Gold Coast on the weekend,” Fletcher said.

“They are young, but they are confident - and we know what we’re in for. They’re going to have a real crack at us on our home deck.”