Brisbane veteran Dayne Zorko says Lions will need to be at their ‘absolute best’ to beat Richmond at MCG

The Brisbane Lions are still searching for their “best football” despite starting the defence of their AFL premiership with three successive wins.

Lions veteran Dayne Zorko says the scare West Coast gave his side last month will ensure Brisbane avoids complacency on Saturday at the MCG against last season’s wooden spooners Richmond.

The Lions had been expected to thrash the struggling Eagles at the Gabba on March 23 but at one stage during the first quarter trailed by 31 points before fighting back to win a tight affair by 19 points.

“They (West Coast) came out at jumped us and put is in a hole for I would say up to three-and-a-half quarters – I thought they were superb,” Zorko told SENQ.

“Richmond will be no different. They’ve got a lot of young, really exciting players that can give energy to the crowd and get their team up and about, and they’ve still got some fantastic ball winners in there.

“Tim Taranto’s having a fantastic season, Toby Nankervis is in supreme form. There are a lot of quality players still out there.”

Lions star Dayne Zorko celebrates after kicking a goal in Brisbane’s win over Geelong. Picture: Albert Perez/AFL Photos via Getty Images

The Tigers have suffered heavy losses in their past two games against Port Adelaide and St Kilda but opened their season with an impressive and hard-fought 13-point win over Carlton.

“We need to be very wary of this Tigers outfit. We saw what the did against Carlton,” Zorko said.

“If you give them a sniff, they’ll take it, and one thing they do give is effort, for all four quarters.

“There’s going to be inconsistencies with that, but they still keep trying and trying, so we’ll need to play at our absolute best.

“We haven’t strung together four quarters (this season), so it’ll be about us playing our game style for longer this week.”

The Lions have opened their premiership defence with three successive wins but in each victory have had to fight back after being down by “significant margins”.

Tim Taranto’s form for the Tigers has impressed Zorko. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images

“It’s not the ideal way you want to go about your football, but it’s good to see we haven’t panicked in these situations and we’ve been able to get ourselves out of it, but certainly it’s not a trend that we want to keep continuing,” Zorko said.

“Teams are trying to get after us. We’ve been in that position before where we really want to go after (the premiers).

“It’s just weathering that storm as best as we can early on. There has been no panic, even though we’ve been down in significant margins in all three of those games (against Sydney, West Coast and Geelong).

“We’re clearly not playing our absolute best football, but our response has been really good after being challenged.”

Originally published as Brisbane veteran Dayne Zorko says Lions will need to be at their ‘absolute best’ to beat Richmond at MCG