Brisbane is in uncharted territory.
Notching a measly two wins from their first six outings of 2024 has alarm bells going off.
And to add further salt to the wound, three of their four defeats have been at the Gabba, a once previous fortress, a stat that hasn't been repeated since 2018.
Geelong goes a GAME clear on top of the ladder and makes it SIX straight to start the season!
Brisbane loses three consecutive matches at the Gabba for the first time since 2018. #AFLLionsCats pic.twitter.com/uv9A9FEord
— 3AW Football (@3AWisfootball) April 20, 2024
So where has it gone wrong?
For starters, the Lions are still getting plenty of opportunity to score, leading the competition for average inside 50s (59) while sitting eighth (24.2) for shots at goal.
However, in stark contrast to the chances they produce, Chris Fagan's men are the worst in the competition for goal efficiency (18.1%) and 16th for shot efficiency (41%) and goal accuracy (44.1%).
All metrics they were top five in during 2023.
However, former captain Dayne Zorko has declared the club will not throw in the towel despite the poor run of form, leaning on the experience of some of their rivals as inspiration.
A 100m penalty against Tom Hawkins sends Dayne Zorko from the backline to the goalsquare. #AFLLionsCats pic.twitter.com/7qKOPrmhT5
— AFL (@AFL) April 20, 2024
"Spirits are still high, we're playing some really good football," Zorko said on Monday.
"Let's look at last year. Carlton were 4-8 and had a draw at the bye; GWS had five wins; Sydney had five wins. Two of those teams played in preliminary finals.
"You can certainly catch fire in this competition and we're looking to do that.
"We know our best is very good and is good enough.
"We need to keep finding and searching for ways to get our best on a more consistent basis and I think we're doing that.
"We feel extremely confident that we can beat anyone on any day."
In their last outing, Brisbane were simply outsmarted and outplayed by Geelong in trying conditions, with the ball featuring along the ground more often than not.
With the rain coming down, strategy and tactics go toward gaining as much territory as possible, limiting the amount of handballs in the contest.
The Lions had a kick-to-handball rate of 224-156 in the wet conditions, failing to adjust when required.
"Our effort was there, I don't think you could question us on that, but if anything we just didn't play the conditions well enough," Zorko said.
"Geelong seemed to have a simpler gameplan and executed it a lot better than what we did. I think we handpassed way too much.
"We probably needed to identify that a little bit better and faster on the night.
"As leaders and older personnel, we should have identified that we needed to kick a lot more than we did."
Fagan will be forced into at least one change for their crunch clash with GWS on Thursday, who could also be missing forward duo Toby Greene and Jesse Hogan.
Ruckman Oscar McInerney suffered a concussion during the first half and has subsequently entered concussion protocols, ruling him out of action for at least 12 days.
Darcy Fort is likely to take his place.
Defender Conor McKenna is also likely to rejoin the senior side after overcoming a hamstring injury.
McKenna played through the VFL over the weekend successfully, gathering 19 disposals.
"Potentially. He had a good game in the reserves, ticked all his boxes," Zorko said.
" I think the staff wanted to see him get through and game and move as well as he has. I saw him the other week and was moving really well, had a lot of energy about him.
"It was a really good sign."