Michael Voss says it's time to stop singling out Brendan Fevola and that only better execution is standing between his side and a return to the winner's circle.
Voss is desperate to keep a united front at the Lions in what has been a horror season, and speaking before the Lions' clash with Melbourne on Saturday night at the Gabba, he was again at pains to stress their position on the ladder was a poor reflection on the club.
Amid rumours of a player-rift that saw the controversial Fevola ignored in attack against Geelong, Voss has continued to lend his support to his besieged playing group, which has not won at home since May, and called for Fev to be given a fair go.
"I think it's time to draw a line in the sand and say Fev's part of the team and we need to stop singling him out," Voss said.
"From my end, we've got to be able to make sure we support all of our players."
"I understand there's focus on him, but from our end he's part of our group and that's all I'm concerned about," said Voss.
Skipper Jonathan Brown has given many public and unprompted assurances that Voss has the full support of the playing group, and the rookie-coach was showing that the faith was mutual, saying that player effort on the training track had been beyond reproach.
"I've spoken on Monday reviews where we haven't had a lot of success on game day – a lot of (positive) things are getting done around the club."
"If you come to training and watch them training and the way the guys are approaching things you'd think they we were completely on a winning streak."
"They're doing the right things, it's just that we've got to be able to convert that to game day and that's where the gap is right now."
"Against opposition and against pressure we've got to be able to make sure we can get through that."
"We've certainly built the muscle enough during the week we just have to ensure that we get it right on game day and that's where the pressure lies in the end," he said.
Having tasted victory just once in their last 12 outings and after going down by more than 10 goals in their last two, the going doesn't get any easier when they take on a Demons side sure to be brimming with confidence.
The pacey Demons carved their fancied Sydney Swans opponents, en-route to a resounding 73-point victory.
Melbourne was the first side to beat Brisbane after its four-win start to the season, and the Demons' fast-paced style seems tailor-made to cause the Lions trouble, but Voss wasn't over-hyping the visitors, saying his troops face the challenge of quick ball-movement on a weekly basis.
"You look at Geelong last week: They had the ability to move that ball and do it quickly, I guess Melbourne is exactly the same."
"We know what their strengths are. They like to run the footy and create space for themselves and it's up to us to try to take that away from them – it'll have it's challenges, but I'm sure the guys will be up for it."
"They're not doing anything different to what any other club's done, we just haven't been good enough to get through it," he said.
The Lions are likely to be bolstered by the return of key-veteran Simon Black, should he make it through a final session after he reportedly trained strongly on Wednesday.
Xavier Clarke returns to first-flight football under heavy praise from Voss, while Justin Sherman – who copped criticism from the outspoken Jason Akermanis earlier in the week – was named as an emergency.
Voss also confirmed that Josh Drummond would sit out the remainder of the season with the club out of the finals race.