After four rounds of the 2010 season, Brisbane was unbeaten, the Fevola-Brown experiment on the forward line was working a treat and the club was lying second on the ladder behind St Kilda, with only a slightly inferior percentage preventing them from being No.1.

The Lions had just wiped the floor with the NAB Cup pre-season premiers, the Western Bulldogs, having had 17 more scoring shot than the Dogs in what was a commanding performance at the Gabba.

And of all the smiles being worn around the Lions' headquarters that week, none was broader than that belonging to second-year coach Michael Voss, who'd finished sixth in his first year in charge and was now thinking along much more ambitious lines.

Then, inexplicably, Brisbane somehow lost to Melbourne by 50 points on a chilly Saturday night at the MCG. Captain Jonathan Brown was clearly not fully fit and kicked just one goal - but even so, it was a performance totally at odds with the team's form of the previous month.

And it is that extraordinary result which has precipitated the most stunning form reversal at Lionland. For Voss's team has now won just once in nine weeks - and that came against Collingwood in round 10 - a sequence that culminated on Saturday night in a home defeat to lowly Richmond.

For the first time in his coaching tenure, Voss looked genuinely distraught after the game and bereft of answers. As though the slide was gathering a momentum of its own - like a grand piano in freefall - and he was powerless to stop it.

"I'm pretty angry, so I'm just trying to keep my head right now," he said.

"We've lacked that uncompromising nature that we started the season with.

"As a result we get inconsistent effort. Some guys are putting in an enormous amount of effort and some aren't. You can't have games where eight to 12 guys are trying their hardest and six aren't. Unless we're willing to bring that game we'll keep getting walked over.

"I think that terminology got used about Hawthorn, I'm not sure who said it, unsociable football, well, we're sociable."

Voss has experienced tough times in the Brisbane jumper before - he made his debut with the ‘Bad News' Bears in 1992, a team that rarely tasted success - but never has he endured such a run of outs as coach.

Injuries have played their part, undoubtedly, but some of the problems being experienced have been of Voss's own making. He chose to draft Brendan Fevola - in one fell swoop threatening the delicate harmony within the playing group - and also opted to go down the risky route of trading away early draft picks in return for experienced players.

That has netted the club players of the ilk of Liam Buchanan, Matt Maguire, Xavier Clarke, Brent Staker and Andrew Raines, some of whom have been good, some not so good. But one clear result of that trade strategy is the paucity of young talent coming through the Brisbane ranks, in comparison with most other clubs.

This form slump will no doubt give ammunition to those who said Voss should never have been given the chance to succeed Leigh Matthews as coach at the end of 2008.

These grey-heads among the coaching fraternity thought he had been promoted way too soon to the top job. In their world view, any coach with senior aspirations should serve an apprenticeship as an assistant - the path chosen by Mark Thompson, Ross Lyon, Alastair Clarkson, Brad Scott, Damien Hardwick and just about any other coach you'd care to name.

Some were also slightly bemused by Voss's performance as the expert comments man during Channel 10's live telecasts in 2008. At half-time, his job was to stand in front of something called the 'NAB Analyser' screen and explain various tactical developments during the game. Some explanations were so convoluted and unclear as to make one former senior coach question whether Voss indeed understood all the tactical nuances being played out in front of him.

But the favourite son and Anointed One was given the nod by the Brisbane board on September 2, 2008. At the official announcement, club chairman Tony Kelly acknowledged Voss's lack of experience might be perceived as a problem, but the club was confident he had the necessary qualities to succeed in his new role.

"We have taken on as what will be described I assume as a 'novice coach', but we are OK with that," he said.

"We are going to back Michael Voss. We've backed him with a three-year contract.

"Michael has not coached at a senior AFL level. But everyone has to start somewhere."

At that same media conference, Voss himself said: ‘'Make no mistake, I'm here to get results.''

Well, he's getting results all right, just not the ones he had in mind. And the next nine weeks, and he how handles the flak that will inevitably accompany a prolonged Lions slump, will go a long way towards determining his future as an AFL head coach.