After a heavy loss to GWS earlier in the season, the Brisbane Lions were forced to hold a serious meeting.

Back-to-back premiership coach Chris Fagan arranged a heart to heart with his playing group and staff members to get the train back on the tracks after losing to the Giants by 78 points in Round 11, which came on the back of a defeat to Geelong.

The frank discussion didn’t work immediately - the Lions lost to Freo that week - but they went on a seven-game winning run thereafter to force their way back into premiership calculations.

The streak was stopped in its tracks by Carlton in Round 21 when the Blues destroyed the Lions by 76 points at Marvel Stadium.

Fagan needed to have THE chat… again.

The result of those candid conversations was a 67-point mauling of third-placed Hawthorn at the Gabba last Friday night.

“I’ve probably seen it so many times - I don’t take it for granted - but I just know they’re a proud group,” Fagan said on SEN Breakfast.

“They were really disappointed about the way we played the week before. Obviously in a high-stakes game on Friday night and maybe the opportunity to finish top four disappears if we don’t get a good result. There was plenty to play for and the boys responded really well.

“There wasn't a big carry-on about the Carlton loss within the four walls. We hardly reviewed the game at all, to be honest.

“On the Sunday after that game, I went for one of my long walks and called every player just to see what their thoughts were and get them back on track. By the time they got it back in on Monday, we were ready to go.”

No review, but the honest feedback came thick and fast.

This time it was with every player individually as he strolled around Brisbane on a Sunday.

“I think I nailed about 20km that day,” Fagan added. “It was worthwhile just to see how they were feeling about things and (how to) get things back on track.

“Just remember we’d won seven in a row coming into that (Carlton) game. It was just a performance out of the blue, really. It just goes to show we’re all human and sometimes you have a bad day.”

Fagan provided insight into how his individual phone calls - more than 20 of them - would go.

Hypothetically, let’s say he called Lachie Neale - what would he say?

“I’d just ring him up and have a chat to him about his own game, get his thoughts on his own game and then talk about the performance from a team perspective and why they thought that we played in the manner that we did,” he added.

“And from that, by the time I finished those phone calls, I got a pretty clear idea of what the group's thinking and what I'm hoping for is that they're thinking the same thing as I am and usually that's the case.”

Fagan, who is chasing a rare three-peat with his Brissie outfit, admits he finds it hard to know if his players have showed up or not early in a contest.

Referencing the Carlton defeat, he says there were no signs that the Lions would perform so poorly. It was just one out of the blue, pardon the pun.

“I find that hard to tell and there was no evidence that we would be like that,” he said further.

“My only fear as a coach was that we’d won seven in a row, at some point in time there's probably going to be a loss coming because it's just the way it goes in this competition and I was really aware that Carlton were 10th on the ladder, but if you did a ladder for the last 10 weeks they were second.

“It’s hard to know. The reflection that the boys had wasn't that they weren't ready, we just didn't play well. There were a few things that went on during the game injury-wise that probably didn't help. But that's not the point, we weren't as well prepared and ready to go as what Carlton were.”

But it’s onwards and upwards after the smacking of the Hawks with top four still on the line in another crunch Q-Clash against Gold Coast this Saturday.

The three-peat remains firmly on the agenda.