Rockliff will spend the night in hospital with suspected broken ribs after taking an accidental knee from Travis Varcoe in a marking contest in the third term.

Leppitsch said he wasn't sure of the extent of his captain's injury but knew immediately that it was a serious one.

"He doesn't go down for no reason so I knew it had to be something bad," he said.

"I've heard mixed reports at this point in time.

"He's more of a no than a yes in the short term."

Rockliff will be a devastating loss for the Lions and Leppitsch said it would test the side's character in the coming weeks.

"It's going to test our leadership as much as anything as well because he's the best talker of our group, the best organiser of our group. It's going to be left to a few others to fill the void there."

Ironically, Rockliff's early exit almost proved a turning point for Brisbane as they embarked on a late surge, whittling down a 53-point deficit to just 10 points deep in the fourth quarter, with a seven-goal run.

While Leppitsch praised his side's mettle in their turnaround, he said there would be no more room for bit part contributions in the team, after their two-faced performance.

Daniel Rich (30 disposals, two goals) was superb in the Lions' comeback, including slotting a 55 metre goal to kick off the last quarter but Leppitsch said it was about creating more more consistency from the side."

"Everyone was good in patches at best," he said.

"Then there were some cameos from Rich and others but that's about it, cameos.

"We've got to get the cameos out of our game and start getting more consistency."

Their start was characterised by poor errors, which became contagious across the side in the opening quarters as the Magpies built the pressure.

"That sort of stuff can be cancerous," he said.

"One bloke drops a mark and the next one does, the next one does and the next bloke then realises, Gee I better mark this one because the last three blokes have dropped theirs.

"It's a bit like goal kicking, you miss a couple early, the third bloke's got more pressure on him so those sorts of things can be contagious throughout the team."

Leppitsch was at a loss as to the reasons behind the side's late comeback but said the fact that it occurred at all showed a key improvement in the side.

"Every now and again when you kick so far down, maybe people realise, 'we've got nothing to lose'.

"The positive is if it was a game like that last year we would've lost by 100 points, given equal circumstances, so I guess to take something out of it, is that."