Brisbane hasn't overreacted this week to last Saturday's drubbing at the hands of state rival Gold Coast, and the Lions' record suggests that nor should it.
For starters, it was only their fifth loss this season, and three of those defeats have been by 11 points or less.
Brisbane also has a handy track record in responding to the odd loss. "That's something we take pride in as a club ... we bounce back pretty well, usually," co-captain Lachie Neale said this week. The Lions' only other big defeat this season came against Saturday night's opponent, Collingwood, and was followed up by an emphatic win over St Kilda on the road.
That's the glass half-full outlook, anyway. Other perspectives, however, aren't quite so rosy.
Like Champion Data's "premiership runway" theory, which is that a side needs to be both playing well and have its house in order in the last half-dozen games leading up to a finals series to be a serious premiership chance.
Over the last eight completed seasons, the eventual premiership teams have only lost an aggregate nine of 48 matches of their last six.
Then there's manner of those defeats, arguably an even more telling statistic. Only twice in the last 54 seasons (Collingwood in 1990 and Hawthorn in 1986) have teams been belted in the course of their last five games by as much as were the Lions last Saturday, and recovered well enough to still win the flag.
Take a look at Brisbane's run home and Lions' supporters might be a little more anxious still.
After Saturday night's massive challenge against the ladder leader and the team which has beaten them on the past four occasions, including the memorable 2023 Grand Final, Brisbane has a date with Sydney, then top eight rivals Fremantle and Hawthorn.
But then again, as advantageous as a top four, and particularly a top two spot would be (with which two home final wins would offer a Grand Final berth), Brisbane has comfort knowing it won last year's premiership from fifth, winning four cut-throat finals on end (the last three interstate) to do so.
And there's an interesting asterisk to that "runway" stat as well. Of those flag-winning teams last six games records, for six seasons from 2017-22, just four games were dropped.
But the other five have come in the past two years, Collingwood going 3-3 in the lead-up to the 2023 finals, and the Lions themselves 4-2 last year. Is that a sign that the entire top eight is more compacted now in terms of ability than previously?
Is it simply that even the best teams now aren't as good as they used to be?
Is that a psychological safety blanket which could come in very handy a month from now? Or a potentially unwelcome crutch for underperformance in the lead-up to September which might do Brisbane more harm than good?
You suspect even Neale nor coach Chris Fagan really know the answer. Which is a bit symptomatic of Brisbane's premiership defence as a whole, really. You can frame an encouraging case for potential back-to-back flags. Alternatively, should the Lions lose their way this September, there's already the skeleton of a compelling explanation as to why.
Much of the football world seems to agree that Brisbane's best football has the highest ceiling of any of the 2025 flag contenders. And the reliability of that being delivered when it counts? Perhaps not so clear.
Brisbane is only 4-4 against current top eight teams so far this season, as is Saturday night's opponent Collingwood. Geelong, GWS and Fremantle have all notched better records against top eight teams this season.
The Lions are an okay-but-hardly-outstanding seventh for points scored and eighth for fewest points conceded. Last year, those equivalent rankings were fourth and second respectively.
In 2024, Brisbane had nine players averaging at least one goal per game, with the now-retired Joe Daniher comfortably more than two. Currently, there's only six averaging more than one with the most prolific, Logan Morris, at a significantly lower strike rate.
The Red Time podcast team discusses Toby Greene's cheeky 'overweight' comment directed at Tom Papley, and the playful way the Sydney star returned serve.
In 32 key statistical categories, the Lions rank third or higher in only five. Last year, they were third or better in 17. Yet, they're still one win better off than they were then at this same stage of the season.
Even that recent 0-4 record against Collingwood is open to interpretation. There's no doubt the Round 6 defeat at the Gabba was a shellacking, to the tune of 52 points, but the two losses at the MCG on the Pies' home deck were both by less than a goal, and the other defeat by only 20 points.
Is this going to be one of those years we wait all season for an expected premier or at worst grand finalist to find its feet and tap a rich vein of form, only to realise late in the piece that the team in question isn't capable of doing so? Or are the Lions, for a second year in a row, just going to leave it fashionably late to hit their straps?
Whatever the result of Saturday night's big clash, for Brisbane at least, there's bound to be some grandiose predictions made of either imminent collapse or the start of a roll similar to last September.
Me? I'm going to wait a while. In fact, potentially another six weeks or so at least!
You can read more of Rohan Connolly's work at FOOTYOLOGY.