Lions forced to 'face the music' before Magpies clash
The Brisbane Lions' historic 66-point QClash loss to Gold Coast on Saturday was not one of those times.
"We had to face the music," the co-captain and midfield general said on Monday of their match review.
"Hard to watch ... embarrassing clips that's not usual for us.
"It's good to see some of that … sometimes you can brush over it but, at this time of year, a performance like that wasn't acceptable."
Having won 12 of their last 13 encounters, Neale and his midfield group had the tables turned on them by Gold Coast's engine room.
Matt Rowell had a career-high 37 touches, only one more than Neale.
But the Suns' ball-winner had 15 clearances to Neale's three, a statistic summing up what was the Suns' biggest defeat of the Lions.
The two-time Brownlow Medal-winner said "something mentally wasn't quite right" but insisted that wouldn't be the case against Collingwood at the MCG on Saturday.
"Hard to put your finger on it; perhaps we got a bit comfortable ... maybe not prepared to go to footy war, roll up your sleeves," Neale said of a loss that snapped a four-game winning streak.
"A bit of a kick in the teeth an as a midfield group certainly lowered our colours.
"It's a great time for us to play (Collingwood); if we can bounce back and play our best it's going to be a great game.
"I wish we were playing Thursday, rather than Saturday."
The Lions dipped to third with the loss and have a tricky finish to the regular season with games against the top-placed Magpies, Sydney, Fremantle and Hawthorn.
A draw with North Melbourne leaves Brisbane one-and-a-half wins clear of the eighth-placed Dockers in a crowded ladder.
"It's very cliche but if you do look at the ladder you can get in your own head and think, we might win this one and lost that one, or win that one," Neale said of his decision not to over-analyse the scenario.
"We finished fifth last year and were able to make a run.
"We'll try and win out from here. Go into every week with a plan to win.
"We'll keep doing that and where we end up we probably deserve and we'll have earned our spot."
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