If good teams respond immediately to bad defeats, Saturday night's meeting between Brisbane and Richmond at the Gabba should answer a lot of questions.
After both suffered stinging losses last weekend, the Lions and the Tigers are both keen for a dose of redemption.
Of the two, Richmond lost the most stock with their 19-point failure against the Western Bulldogs, which has again raised perennial questions over the mental strength of Damien Hardwick's outfit and the legitimacy of their AFL top-four aspirations.
Assistant coach Ben Rutten is not just hopeful, but expectant of a completely different performance from the Tigers.
"Reviewing the game, we were really disappointed with just some of our fundamental errors and basic sort of mistakes," he told Fox Sports.
"The good teams respond really quickly and we're going to be no different.
"Brisbane are going to be hungry.
"It's a good chance for us to get away as a group and we're looking forward to a much more aggressive, physical response from our boys.
"It's a great opportunity for us to be able to respond on an interstate trip."
The Lions, meanwhile, are still reeling from a belting at the hands of North Melbourne and in just two weeks, have gone from genuine finals hopefuls to potentially staring down the barrel of another forgettable year.
History suggests their fortunes won't flip this week against Richmond, who they haven't beaten since 2009.
But then again, the Tigers have won just one out of nine games without midfield star Brett Deledio, who will miss the trip north due to an ongoing calf complaint.
"It's not as if they've belted us in any one particular game over the years but we just haven't been able to get over the top of them," Lions coach Justin Leppitsch said.
"One thing we have to instil in this group is consistency.
"A lot of the things we do a lot of other teams are doing as well. They're just doing it a little bit better.
"I think the planning itself is fine. We just have to make sure the implementation is good and under pressure we can still think through that."
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