Leppitsch upbeat despite Lions losses

Brisbane coach Justin Leppitsch is trying his best to stay upbeat despite a second successive defeat pointing to another long, hard AFL season ahead.

Having copped a 10-goal loss to West Coast in round one, the Lions fell by 34 points in Saturday's clash with North Melbourne at the Gabba.

Brisbane had their chances but were inaccurate in front of goal, sloppy with their disposal and poor with their discipline - a familiar precis for supporters over the last couple of seasons.

And it doesn't get any easier with next week's assignment a daunting trip to Simonds Stadium to face a Patrick Dangerfield-inspired Geelong.

Leppitsch insists his side isn't far away from clicking, but said the reality is they'll be in a work-in-progress for a while yet.

"We've got to make sure we stay positive through it," he said.

"We've played two pretty good teams straight up.

"We have to keep a level head as to where we're at, who we're playing and what we can deliver on any given day.

"Being a young team, it's the hardest thing to say as a coach, but you almost expect some degree of mistake rate going into a game, because they're young.

"That's no excuse to make mistakes but we have to know because they're younger there's going to be more."

The Lions could be without skipper Tom Rockliff (calf) and Daniel Rich (hamstring) for the Geelong trip.

The midfield pair were well held by their opponents and had little impact on the contest, with both forced off the ground at three-quarter time with injuries that will be properly assessed early next week.

"It was a bit of a perfect storm for our leaders tonight. That will happen, they are not perfect. They are going to have bad games like everyone," Leppitsch said.