As much as he would like to, Brisbane Lions skipper Jonathan Brown admits he can't forget the last round mauling by the Cats ahead of their AFL showdown with Essendon.

But Brown has no doubt the wounded Lions can bounce back against a resurgent Bombers at the Gabba on Saturday night.

"You are not going to forget a tapping but the majority of the focus will be on the Bombers," Brown conceded at Brisbane on Tuesday.

Still smarting from last Sunday's 93-point shellacking, Brown asked his teammates to lift at training in a bid to boost a skill level that he believes has been lacking for the last three years.

"The need for a high skill level is higher than it has ever been in the history of the game," he said.

"But we haven't shown it in the first five weeks of football. Well, for the last three years of football to be honest.

"Our training has got to get better. We have to be more consistent when we approach training.

"Because that's where it starts, on the training track."

However, Brown said skill errors would not be the key criteria when the round six team was picked following their meek surrender at Geelong.

"We know we need to improve our skill level (but) after embarrassing losses like that the effort needs to be looked at," he said.

"I am sure Vossy (Brisbane Lions coach Michael Voss) will be seriously looking at the effort in some of the contests and some of the passages of play against Geelong.

"There was no finger pointing, but I am sure there will be changes."

Brown admitted his teammates' faith in each other had been shaken by the Geelong debacle - a view only reinforced when forced to review the match on Monday.

But Brown had "full confidence" that they could rebound against Essendon.

"No doubt. It (Geelong win) should be pretty good motivation I reckon," he said.

"I sense that all the guys are embarrassed by what happened. They have been hurting.

"But you can't hurt all week. We've got to pick ourselves off the canvas.

"Quite often you see a side come back and play well after a big defeat like that.

"I have full confidence in the players we have here. They will fight back.

"We have the cattle. We can do it."

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