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Brisbane AFL coach Chris Fagan has bemoaned his side's inability to capitalise on their early momentum in a 16-point loss to the Western Bulldogs in Ballarat.

Brisbane were left to rue missed opportunities after a 16-point loss to the Western Bulldogs, but coach Chris Fagan has refused to lay the blame at the feet of wayward forward Eric Hipwood.

With five behinds in the first half on Saturday afternoon in Ballarat, Hipwood was the chief transgressor as the Lions failed to capitalise on their early momentum to suffer a 13.14 (92) to 11.10 (76) defeat.

Hipwood was better in the second half to finish with 2.5 but the damage was done.

"The good thing was that he got back on the bike and kicked a couple after halftime, so he didn't mentally disintegrate," Fagan said.

"Sometimes that happens.

"He's been kicking really well, pretty much the whole season but, today, he just had a bad day.

"He always works on his goalkicking so he'll continue to do so."

The Dogs set up the win in the third quarter when they were able to get on top of Brisbane in contested possessions to lead by 21 points at three-quarter time.

The Lions slipped to a 5-3 record after starting their season with three wins on the spin.

"We're a developing team so it's not a realistic expectation that we're going to come out and win every week," the coach said.

"We've had a really good season so far, but we met a really determined Bulldogs side today. We'll learn from it.

"Last year, we were 0-8 and we're 5-3 so that's a good position for us to be in, but I'm not happy about today."

The Lions finished two players down after Zac Bailey injured a hamstring in the first quarter and Jarrod Berry was poked in the eye in the final term.