Brisbane coach Michael Voss says his AFL side's attack has defied expectations they can't cope without Jonathan Brown, but they need greater supply from the midfield.

Despite entering their attack only about half as often as Collingwood in Saturday night's MCG encounter - 39 forward 50m entries compared to 71 - the Lions fell just 18 points short, losing 14.18 (102) to 13.6 (84).

Voss said the high conversion rate of attacking thrusts into goals had become a feature of his team, despite the absence of their best forward, inspirational skipper Brown.

"We're nearly the most efficient team in the competition over the past five weeks for scoring from inside 50s, so we've got some really damaging players," Voss said.

"... Jonathan Brown's been pivotal to us in that part of the ground and (in the past) we haven't been able to score if he hasn't been here.

"I think we're squashing that, we're getting others who are stepping up to do that job and we hope that obviously Jonathan Brown will complement us when he comes back in."

Another positive has been the form of athletic young ruckman Matthew Leuenberger, who was excellent against the Magpies.

With the Lions boasting two of the competition's more promising young ruckmen in Leuenberger and Mitch Clark, Voss said they now needed their young midfield group to learn to capitalise.

"That group that's emerging in that area, they've got two ruckmen, Mitch Clark also, that are going to get their first hand to the footy more often than not," he said.

"... I guess over a period of time we'll start to make that connection (between hit-outs and winning possession) a lot more often."

While the Lions have posted just four wins this year, Saturday night's loss was their sixth defeat by three goals or less, giving Voss hope they can make big strides next year.

He said the fact that his team had fought hard all season, despite their low ladder position, gave a good platform to work with.

"We've just got to start to put the class around the edges," he said.

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