BRISBANE coach Chris Fagan has admitted a single quarter cost his side the match against Greater Western Sydney, after a staggering 14-goal third-quarter blitz from the Giants completely blew the Lions off the park on Sunday afternoon.

The Giants held a mere six-point lead at half time, but just seconds into the third term, Phoenix Gothard hit the scoreboard and ignited a total capitulation. 

GIANTS v LIONS Full match coverage and stats

In a disastrous restart for Brisbane, the Giants surged away as Jake Stringer, Aaron Cadman, Toby Greene, Brent Daniels, Gothard, and Max Gruzewski all piled on unanswered goals. By the time Greene snagged his fourth major of the term, the exclamation mark was firmly set on a blistering 14.2 to 0.4 quarter.

With the effort, the Giants' set the record for the highest-ever third-quarter score in V/AFL history and the highest-scoring quarter against a reigning premier, while also ranking as the fourth-highest scoring quarter overall.

Speaking post-match, Fagan identified his side's third-quarter collapses as a chronic issue rather than a one-off disaster against the Giants. He noted that poor third quarters have plagued the team for three consecutive weeks, pointing to a squandered 38-point half-time lead against Carlton and a six-goal-to-three third term against Geelong just the previous week.

“They played an unbelievable third quarter,” he told reporters.

“When you look at the scores, we lost the first quarter by six, we evened the second quarter, and we won the last quarter. But we lost this third quarter by 83 points. We got smashed everywhere — at the contest and ball movement. We couldn't stop it; they just controlled the game.

“Unfortunately, and to be truthful, our third quarters have been a problem for us for the last three weeks. For some reason or other, these quirky things sort of pop up. We had a good lead against Carlton a few weeks ago and squandered a fair bit of that in the third quarter. Geelong got us in the third quarter last week, and it happened again today. We need to have a talk with the group and work out what's happening there.” 

The Brisbane mentor confessed he never saw the onslaught coming, lamenting that once the momentum shifted, nothing the Lions tried could stop the bleeding.

“We tried putting a player behind the ball, we tried a whole lot of things, but when you can't win the footy and you can't get possession of it, this game's pretty hard to play,” Fagan said.

“That's been the pattern for the last three weeks in third quarters — we've just been beaten in the contest and in the clearance.”

Fagan admitted his three-quarter-time address was incredibly tough, revealing he was deeply worried by his players' dropping heads as the game slipped away.

“The body language wasn't good,” he said. 

“I talked to them about that at three-quarter time and said, ‘Now, the challenge is this last quarter. Can we actually turn it around and get something out of the game for next week?’. 

“So, whilst the sting was out of the game, at least there was some semblance of effort in the last quarter, and we were able to win the quarter. We could easily have sort of just given it away for the day, but we didn't do that. So, I take a little bit of heart from that.

“We had to get something out of the game; we couldn't walk away with the same thing happening in the fourth quarter. So, I was just looking for a response, and there was one. I mean, it wasn't an almighty response, but it was a lot better than what we produced in the third quarter.”

The upset victory was even more impressive for GWS, considering it came despite the costly losses of key defenders Jack Buckley to in-game hamstring soreness and Lachie Whitfield to pre-game hamstring awareness. 

According to coach Adam Kingsley, Buckley experienced tightness during the game without a specific injury incident. He will undergo scans to determine the extent of the issue. 

Meanwhile, Whitfield tweaked his hamstring during Friday's training and failed to meet initial expectations that he would recover in time to play. 

The club's medical staff will evaluate both defenders before deciding whether to play them against Melbourne next week or rest them through the upcoming bye round.

In addition to the fresh injury concerns, Kingsley revealed that Greene has been playing with a broken foot for the last five weeks.

“He's got one more game, and then he'll enjoy the bye week. That'll give him a bit of a reprieve, and I don't think it'll linger beyond the bye. I think it'll be OK by then,” Kingsley said of the injury.

“It's getting better week on week on week, but yeah, there are not many players who would be able to do that.”

On a more positive note for the Giants' injury-hit backline, Kingsley shared that star fullback Sam Taylor is expected to make his return next week. 

Conversely, defender Leek Aleer is unlikely to feature immediately, as he still requires another week or two of training. With Nick Madden also facing an extended period on the sidelines, Taylor is likely to be the only major inclusion for the Giants ahead of the bye.