Neeld refused to blame the loss of forwards Mitch Clark and Brad Green for his team's 61-point loss to the Lions. "Injuries are part of the game, and there's a few clubs going through that at the moment. It's testing our depth and those types of things, but they certainly weren't the reason why we got beaten," he said.

But he conceded the Demons had been unable to make the most of its opportunities when they did win the ball. "We only went down in the clearances by one; we had a good result with contested possessions. We had a positive inside-50 count, so that indicates that we had enough of the footy.

"Fifty-four inside 50s for eight goals is an area we need to work on … A combination of us not using the footy as well as we would have liked, and Brisbane, they worked really hard and really well defensively. Their ability to capitalise on the turnovers that they caused was better than ours."

Michael Voss looked almost shocked when told his side was only one game outside the eight. "The guys have done wonderfully to be able to work their way back into the competition," he said. "We've put ourselves in that mix, and there's a fairly large group that's hovering around that area.

"I guess if there's [a] carrot, then it's dangling right out in front of us. If that's what motivates the guys to do what they need to do on a daily basis, then good.