Canberra coach David Furner says his players will take a lot of positives from their 32-24 NRL trial loss to Brisbane which was "very pleasing".

Canberra led Brisbane 12-4 during the first half after controlling the ball for 11 successive sets of six tackles putting Brisbane's defence under constant pressure.

But a hat-trick of tries to Broncos star Israel Folau and a double to centre prospect Ben Te'o got the Brisbane home in an entertaining clash at Ballymore on Saturday.

"We completed 11 (sets) from 11 and that's what we set out to do," said Furner, who will now cut his squad down for next weekend's final pre-season trial against the Bulldogs in Dubbo.

"I was disappointed a few times with our on-line defence because we'd been working pretty hard at it but Brisbane have a lot of strike there, so that's something we need to work on."

Furner said he would get his players to work on the lessons from the game when they play the Bulldogs.

"These are the kind of games you can get a lot out of," he said.

"We've got one more trial before the start of the season to get things right.

"There were a lot of positives, a lot of stuff for us to work on.

"It was our first hit out and some of the boys haven't played.

"I was reasonably pleased.

Furner was more than happy with the work of front-rowers Dave Shillington, Dane Tilse and Scott Logan and excited by five-eighth Terry Campese's work with the ball.

"I thought our front rowers were very good, our go forward was good," he said.

"I liked Campo's enthusiasm around the ruck, pushing up all the time, that was very pleasing."

Former Bronco Reece Robinson did enough to push for a return to the NRL on the wing.

"He wasn't not too bad actually," said Furner.

"He's got a very good knowledge of the game, you can tell he is a footballer.

"He hasn't played in that environment for 12 months so I didn't think he went too bad.

"He is someone who we will be looking to improve and playing against his old club was fairly positive for Reece."

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