Voss urges Lions to go to school

IT WAS Michael Voss’s biggest challenge in his brief coaching career - playing an undefeated Geelong in windy, wet conditions at Skilled Stadium.

And the Brisbane Lions coach says the Cats had an answer to every move and strategy he and his coaching staff could implement.

“It’s fair to say we didn’t bring the kryptonite,” Voss said.

“They’re the very best team in the competition and probably have been over the last couple of years. You do different things against them and they can counter it. Their ability to win the ball and maintain possession is quite extraordinary and they do bring each other into the game.

The Lions’ 35 points was their equal-lowest score since the merger of Fitzroy and the Brisbane Bears and Voss said if his players could take nothing else from the game, they could learn from Geelong’s ability to play as a team.

“When you have a group of players together you want something from everyone. When you’ve got a number of players who aren’t contributing it makes it very hard to win a game of football. When you come up against Geelong you have to contribute,” he said.

“That doesn’t mean you have to touch the ball but you’ve got to contribute in some way. I didn’t think it was Stevie Johnson’s day today but he still contributed in some fashion. Joel Patfull did a reasonable job against Steve but I’m sure he filled a role for his team.”

The Lions have lost ruckmen Jamie Charman and Matthew Leuenberger to long-term injuries in recent weeks, but Voss said he would persist with his rotation of Lachlan Henderson, Jared Brennan and Mitch Clark.

“We’ll have to work out our own strategies and tactics. We’re not going to have a pure ruckman for quite a while so it is just something we are going to have to adapt and work around again,” Voss said.

While the Lions coach wished his players could learn from the loss, he added that it was important not to dwell on it too long.

“What we can’t do is lose hope on one another and lose what we’ve been able to build over the months of pre-season and in the early part of the season,” he said.

“We have to make sure we can get back on the bike quite quickly. We’ve got another game coming up in six days time against a side that has had a reasonable win. There might have to be a DVD we put in the bin and leave to the side so we can move on quite quickly.”