Brisbane will treat former skipper Dayne Beams like any other player when he lines up for Collingwood on Thursday night, says Lions coach Chris Fagan.

It will be the first match for Beams against Brisbane since asking for a trade during the off-season.

"We had Rocky (Tom Rockliff) up here a couple of weeks ago and he was one of 22," Fagan said on Wednesday morning.

"Dayne is one of 22 tomorrow night.

"They've got a lot of great players, including him. We won't spend any more time on him than anyone else.

"We'll just treat him as a normal player from the opposition, we'll shake hands before and we'll shake hands at the end.

"What happens in between, we've got no control over that, have we?"

Beams spent four seasons in Lions colours and was captaining the club less than 12 months ago before he relinquished the role to Dayne Zorko.

Fagan said it would be silly to concentrate on Beams' return, given the quality of Collingwood's midfield – one Lachie Neale described earlier in the week as the best in the competition.

"West Coast's midfield is ranked pretty highly as well, so is Port Adelaide's, so we've played against great midfields and matched them, if not beat them, and we look forward to that challenge."

Brisbane had 23 players at its final training run on Wednesday, with likely emergency Ben Keays the only addition to the 22 that lost against Essendon on Saturday.

Fagan said he was not concerned about his team's defensive matchups against the versatile Magpies forwards, saying the pressure had to come from further up the field.

With a sellout expected at the Gabba, Fagan said his young team would learn from the poor performance against Essendon.

"You've got to be on your game every week," he said.

"Every now and then it's good to get a reminder.

"It was probably just a little slip in our attitude and application … we got what we deserved.

"We've been used to having a loud crowd here all year.

"We got good practice last week playing at the MCG where there were 50,000 people … tomorrow night will be a little more weighted in our favour.

"We'll learn from last week, look forward to the occasion and try and play well to get our crowd involved in the game."