AFL Round 18: Brisbane Lions beat GWS Giants by 40 points at Manuka Oval

The home side trailed the round 18 clash on Saturday by just seven points at half-time, before the Lions ran away in the second half to record a 15. 9 (99) to 9.5 (59) win.

The loss marks GWS' sixth straight in Canberra, with only one more chance this season against the Dockers next month to claim their first win at the venue since May 2019.

McVeigh said they tried afew different things this week in an effort to reclaim their Canberra form.

"It was really good before that, it was a bit of a fortress for us," he said.

"This week we actually all got a bus down, and we will get a bus back, just to stay together for something a little bit different.

"It keeps us together. We stopped halfway, to get out and have a stretch, so we tried something different there.

"We love the ground. It's a beautiful surface, we got a great crowd. So that's something we've got to potentially look at, but it's hanging over our heads a little bit."

Giants skipper Toby Greene bagged the game's first goal, but from there it was all the Lions in the opening quarter, and the third, and fourth.

It was two for Daniel McStay, and one a piece for Hugh McCluggage and Charlie Cameron to give the visitors a 4.1 (25) to 1.1 (7) lead at the first break.

The Giants dominated the second quarter to claw the contest back to a seven-point game, in part thanks to Sam Taylor's efforts in the backline with 16 disposals.

McVeigh praised Taylor's "incredible" defensive effort after he stepped up for a standout first half in the absence of star GWS defender Phil Davis, taking several big intercept marks.

McCluggage kicked the Lions' only goal of the second term, after McStay missed a chance right in front of the posts, before Rhys Mathieson did the same from the left.

The break, however, did no favours for GWS, as the pendulum swung back to an all Lions affair in the second half and stayed there.

McVeigh admitted his side needed to address why a sustained four quarter effort was missing from their game, and find it before season's-end.

He said the Lions' work rate was "far greater" than the Giants.

"I was extremely disappointed with some of the effort, especially to stop them scoring, to defend the ground, to stop the transition run from their midfielders, I thought we were exposed badly in that area," he said.

"What heightens that is you go down and lose contested possession by minus 17, which is a pretty alarming trend at the moment for our club. It just compounds and compounds, and you end up losing by a significant margin.

"I continually thought it was an effort thing for us, and that effort wasn't sustained."

Tim Taranto kicked the Giants' only goal of the third quarter to the Lions' five to open up a big margin.

It could have been even more damage on the Manuka scoreboard, as Brisbane kicked five behinds from countless forward entries.

Brisbane escaped their first match at Manuka with a win and no injuries, giving Lions coach Chris Fagan a selection headache next week.

However he said there was plenty to improve on, but the win had set them on the right path.

"The thing that was most pleasing for me was when we were able to keep Giants to 35 inside 50s, and they had 14 of those in the last quarter," he said.

"So that tells you that we put on a really tremendous defensive performance today which is very pleasing because we weren't happy with that part of our game last week."

In the last term, McCluggage kicked his fourth, Cameron bagged his third, Rayner secured his second, and Keidan Coleman scored his first to secure the Lions a win.

After a slow GWS start to the final quarter, late goals to Daniel Lloyd, Harry Himmelberg and Jesse Hogan added some respectability to the scoreboard.

If the 40-point loss was not enough, there are also concerns for GWS half-forward Josh Kelly, who went down with a concussion and was taken off.

Greene may also find himself on report for an off-ball incident.