IT IS a term that is not often associated with the powerhouse that is the Brisbane Lions, but AFLW coach Craig Starcevich described his team as “rattled” after conceding five goals to one in the second term of its Round 3 loss to Carlton.

The Lions went on to fight back to within striking distance in the third, but the Blues settled throughout the fourth term to come away with the 9.4 (58) to 6.8 (44) victory. Starcevich said the homeground advantage at Brighton Homes Arena had done little given the state of play.

“I mean it doesn’t really matter where you play, if the opposition are better than you as Carlton were, they were cleaner, got us out the back a couple of times scoring wise,” he said. “Little patch in the second quarter that we won’t be happy with when we go back and have a look at it.

“It rattled us a bit, lacked a bit of composure when that was all happening, but to their credit we came back and had a real strong third quarter and looked like we were going to get ourselves back into it. Won’t be happy having one more scoring shot and missed out on the result by 14 points.

“There will be a lot of things that we’ll go back and have a look at that we won’t be happy with. We’re only three games into the year so there’s a few things to fix to get ourselves right again.”

Brisbane actually had 18 more inside 50s (49-31) and controlled the field position for the most part, but could not capitalise which was ultimately costly for the Lions. Starcevich said Brisbane had the ball in its front half for 60 per cent of the game which hurt.

“I thought we started really well, then they got a couple in the first quarter to get our noses in front,” he said. “But I thought we had something like 70 per cent field position in the first quarter. “So you’ve got to capitalise when you get those opportunities and we didn’t. “Credit to Carlton, they played really well, they looked quick and sharp and skilful and we paid the price.”

When pressed on the term ‘rattled’ when describing his team at half-time, Starcevich said the value of “competitive mindset” was difficult to measure, but vital to success. However the “confusing” element was the fact the Lions started strongly.

“We treat like most people treat losses like learning exercises, so we’ll have a look at how they scored, what we were doing,” he said. “I think part of it is having a comfortable win the week before, I think that mindset is a hard one to get past. “I mean you’re talking about professional athletes now so you should be able to do that, but they’re all humans. “Just getting back into that hard, competitive mindset is sometimes a little more difficult than sometimes we give it credit for.”

While Starcevich was pleased his side responded in the third, he said Carlton kicking the first major of the fourth quarter “deflated” his side, but the Lions fought out the game well to bring some momentum into Round 4.

“No reason not to (think we could have run over the top of them), we had a terrific third quarter,” Starcevich said. “The looks in people’s eyes were that they were up for the fight and ready to go. “Just we just left ourselves with too much to do and I think that first goal deflates you a little bit. “But they didn’t give up, they kept cracking in which is great, but we’ve just got to pick ourselves up and look forward to next week.”

Brisbane have a massive Round 4 Indigenous Round clash up against traditional AFLW rivals Kuwarna (Adelaide) at Norwood Oval on Sunday afternoon.