Brisbane coach Michael Voss has put star recruit Brendan Fevola on notice to lift his work-rate.

Voss pulled no punches on Monday when he demanded better from Fevola who has totalled just nine possessions in the Lions' last two losses to Fremantle and Geelong.

The former Carlton spearhead started 2010 in good form as his new club won their first four matches but he's failed to make an impact as they have fallen into a hole to drop outside the top eight.

Fevola suffered a bruised heel against Sydney a fortnight ago and also appeared ginger during Saturday night's warm-up at the Gabba.

He kicked one goal - the 600th for his career - and had just three disposals against Matthew Scarlett in the 81-point hiding.

But Voss refused to make excuses.

"Look, he's had a couple of little ailments which have prevented him from training so that's always one thing and he needs the continuity to be able to train," he said.

"But his work-rate is not high enough and as a result you always look a little bit sore and not as into the game.

"That's something that he needed to address and address quite urgently, and that certainly helps us when he has high energy and he's moving around the field.

"If it gets to a point that there is something that was affecting the way he moved then we would make an assessment from there but in this point in time that hasn't been communicated to me."

All the Lions have been given a two-day break to freshen up both physically and mentally before Sunday's clash with the struggling Crows in Adelaide.

Voss hoped Fevola would get good benefit from the rest and more training opportunities.

He said the full-forward was capable and put in hard efforts in bursts but then failed to follow up.

"We anticipate he's fine, he's right and is going to play and he has to make sure he gets the necessary training under his belt," Voss said.

"For him to have value in our team that's something that he needs to work on - I would have thought that's been us as a team, quite honestly.

"The effort has been there and you think `where's this come from?' and there's other times where we dropped the ball."

The Lions are hopeful of having ruckman Mitch Clark back from a groin injury against the Crows but have defender Ash McGrath in serious doubt after he hyper-extended his elbow against Geelong.

Despite the huge loss, Voss was actually pleased with some facets from his team against an "outstanding" opponent who remain the benchmark in his eyes.

"The one effort you don't do is the one that gets exposed when you play against a great team," he said.

"Everyone's effort has to be on and ... when Fev doesn't chase that gets highlighted because it becomes so obvious in the way the opposition moves the ball.

"When we don't make those actions there's a consequence to it and it usually means they get a shot on goal."

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