COLLINGWOOD forward Dale Thomas has called on his side to improve its conversion rate after going down to the Lions by eight points at the Gabba on Saturday night.

The loss makes it two defeats in a row for the Magpies, who booted 6.14 in going down to Geelong in round nine, before racking up more scoring shots than the Lions to register 11.14.

Thomas said players needed to capitalise on their forward thrusts.

“We probably just didn’t take our chances,” Thomas said.

“We didn’t put enough score on the board in that first half when we were probably playing the better footy.

"We had the ball inside 50 a bit in the second and third quarters and didn’t really put them away and they would go down and Fev would kick a couple, so that’s probably one of the factors.”

Thomas had a team-high 34 disposals and booted one goal in an impressive display.

While Scott Pendlebury (33 disposals) and Dane Swan (29) made solid contributions, they couldn’t stop the Lions second-half onslaught, led by Luke Power (35 disposals) and the twin towers, Jonathan Brown and Brendan Fevola with four goals each.

Thomas said the Magpies expected the Lions would be tough to beat after suffering five losses in a row.

“They lost the last couple but their form in the first four or five games of the year was really good,” Thomas said.

“They showed tonight they’re still a really good team and are capable of playing really good footy.

“You can’t afford to take your foot off the pedal in the second half and that’s probably what we did.”

Collingwood holds on to second place on the ladder for now but things don’t get any easier as the Pies take on the fifth-placed Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium next Sunday.

Thomas said they need to return to the attacking brand of football they were playing in the first part of the season.

“It’s not all doom and gloom,” Thomas said.

“We’ve just got to regroup now and we’ve got another big game against the Bulldogs this week, a chance to rectify it.”

“We’ll go over the game and learn where we need to get better, learn what we did wrong and hopefully we’ll be a better side for it.”