AFTER handing a 52-point drubbing to the injury-riddled Collingwood, Brisbane Lions head coach Craig Starcevich was still able to find improvements in his side’s performance.

With the Magpies having to utilise VFL Women’s top-up players, they are far from the strength of the reigning premiers, however the Lions coach said there is still room for growth.

“[We were happy for] bits of it,” Starcevich explained.

“It’s funny how the quarters sort of ebbed and flowed a little bit, in terms of how much heat we could apply across the ground and the back end of the first, second and third quarters we just put our foot down pretty well and then in the last quarter it looked like we were going through the motions a bit.

“It’s a good result but like if someone had said at the beginning of the night you’d have a 50-odd point win you’d take it, but we feel like we’ve left a bit out there but we know we’ve got a busy time coming up so there’s a bit of a view to that.”

When pressed further about his side’s assets and how they plan to play, Starcevich described how the Round 1 loss to North Melbourne made them reflect on their style of play.

“Our assets are our pace and speed and whether we do that on the outside or try and get a little bit more speed through the middle of the ground, that’s something that we are very mindful of,” he said.

“[We] had a good look at North [Melbourne] a couple of weeks ago and they were super in some departments and we’ve learned a fair bit from that so hopefully there are some aspects that we can apply to our game but yeah in a nutshell we like to pressure the opposition and try and get moving.”

Small forward Courtney Hodder and wingers Jade Ellenger and Sophie Conway, featured in the midfield rotation during the game, and Starcevich detailed the thoughts behind these moves on-field.

“We’re trying a few different things in there, Sophie [Conway] was in there for a little bit tonight as well so, just [trying] some different types of combos in there,” Starcevich said.

“It’s Round 3 and we are trying to work out what combinations work best in certain situations in the game and they all provide something a little bit different.”

When considering the approaching condensed mid-week fixtures, teams might look to try players in different positions to preserve their star players. Starcevich explained that their look to diversify has nothing to do with that.

“Not necessarily the games, but more about what we need for different combos for the really good teams in the comp, so just to get a little bit more polish and go forward from the middle of the ground is always a good thing for us but not so much preserving people.”