COLLINGWOOD coach Mick Malthouse has heaped praise on the victorious Brisbane Lions but said he would visit umpires boss Jeff Gieschen this week in the wake of the Magpies' two-point loss at the Gabba on Friday night.

While not elaborating any further on his reasons why, Malthouse said: ''I'd say in 12 months I haven't spoken to Jeff Gieschen, but I think I might this week''.

The Pies gave up a 16-point lead at three-quarter time as the Lions stormed home in front of a parochial crowd.

The home team started its comeback via back-to-back goals courtesy of free kicks.

Firstly, Anthony Corrie was collected high by Tarkyn Lockyer and goaled, and Jonathan Brown was given another free 60 seconds later to get the Lions rolling and cut the margin to three points.

Malthouse made no excuses for his team and said he was already looking at next week's contest against Richmond.

''If you lose by three [sic] points or whatever it is you're going to be disappointed no matter who you play, but it's no different to any other time,'' he said.

''It's up to the side to rebound. Those things happen and you just move on.

''Brisbane deserved their win, they played better football when they needed to and won the game.''

Despite some last quarter misses from set shots by his team, Malthouse was not pointing the finger of blame at anyone.

''I'm not going to be harsh on those players, the conditions weren't great,'' he said.

''We had the ball in there a lot of times and probably should have been better equipped to score.

''The game statistically was pretty even. I didn't think there was any great momentum shift, maybe the three-quarter time break, but I wouldn't draw on that.

''It was good to have Scott Burns back, but it was good to still expose young players, as they (Lions) have, some very good young players, but it's important to rebound and I think the importance of those rebounds is due to the good leadership out there, Burns, O'Bree, Maxwell etc.''

While key forwards Anthony Rocca and Travis Cloke booted two goals each and had their moments, Malthouse thought the Lions defence was one of the key differences.

''I thought they handled us well,'' the coach said.

''I think their backline is very good. I think their backline is very underrated in many respects. You can name a couple, but after that all the other blokes play tall-medium so I think they had us pretty well covered.''

At the other end of the ground Nathan Brown spent the majority of his night minding Lions superstar Jonathan Brown.

The latter booted two goals in an evenly fought contest, which Malthouse said would do his defender wonders.

''It's always difficult to play on a champion. I think one of the lessons there is that he played on him. He'll have another story to tell and another chance to improve his game. I thought he battled hard against a champion.''

Tyson Goldsack received a broken nose from a third quarter clash with Corrie and was unable to return.