Brisbane's loss to Richmond at the MCG last Sunday will only make the Lions better when the teams meet in a qualifying final at the Gabba on September 7.
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That's the view of Lions skipper Dayne Zorko, who says his team has already learned some important lessons from the 27-point loss as they prepare for their first finals campaign since 2009.
"We hadn't played them for 26-27 rounds so it's a long time not playing a side," Zorko said.
"They'll take a lot out of it, we certainly know we have already. It's certainly going to make for an interesting clash in a couple of weeks."
Sunday's defeat came on the back of a six-goal first quarter by the Tigers, with the Lions only managing two majors in reply.
While Chris Fagan's men fought back to get within two goals at one stage, they were overrun in the final term.
The defeat didn't prevent the Lions from securing a top-two finish, meaning they'll have two finals at the Gabba including the clash with the Tigers.
As he prepares for the first finals campaign of his career, Zorko said leading the Lions into September was a massive personal honour.
"It's pretty awesome. I'm pinching myself a little bit to be honest," he said.
"Like most of us the rise was pretty dramatic but I think there was a lot of internal belief that we could certainly do it.
"To be able to lead this team and the whole club is awesome."
As well as the game against the Tigers at a packed MCG, the Lions warmed up for finals with a thrilling one-point win over Geelong in front of a capacity crowd at the Gabba the week before.
Zorko said the club couldn't have asked for a better lead-in than those two matches for the finals.
"The past two weeks we've played in front of very large crowds and we've adapted really well to that," he said.
"That'll only hold us in good stead for the next fortnight as well.
"On the weekend in that first quarter we started really well but we weren't able to do it for the majority of that first quarter and that's where they got on top of us. We sort of played into their hands and gave them exactly what they wanted.
"After quarter-time I thought we got back to the way we like to play our football and won a lot of key areas that we were really pleased with. There's still a lot of work to do but it certainly gave us great belief."
Australian Associated Press
