The Demons went into the game without key forward Mitch Clark (foot) and suffered two cruel blows when experienced duo Nathan Jones and Mark Jamar were late withdrawals due to calf injuries.
Their woes were further exacerbated when developing tall Tom McDonald was subbed off early in the first quarter after receiving a heavy knock.
McDonald was taken to hospital where the early diagnosis was a bleeding lung.
Neeld said McDonald would not be able to fly back to Melbourne with his teammates and would remain in Brisbane until he recovered.
"The word coming back from the hospital is that he's going to be OK [although] sore for a while," Neeld said.
After the match, Neeld took an upbeat view of the performance, saying key indicators showed his team in a more positive light than the 61-point margin would suggest.
"In terms of structure, we only went down in clearances by one," Neeld said.
"We had a good result in contested possessions; we had a positive inside-50 count so that indicates we had enough of the footy.
"[But] 54 inside-50s for eight goals is an area we need to work on."
The Lions were deadly once securing possession. They had four fewer inside-50s but kicked 10 more goals, moving the ball through the midfield with such speed that the Dees' defenders were under immense pressure.
It is an area Neeld said his team needs to learn from.
"The ability of the Brisbane players ... to get out and get away from us, and our inability to go with them was a concern," Neeld said.
"That points to our defensive pressure being not quite slick enough when they had the initial possession.
"It's good for the young boys to see, up close and personal, how hard you need to work - in particular to run from the contest - and they'll be better for that."
Melbourne appeared to particularly miss Clark, a player that has become a focal point for the Demons this season.
Many forward thrusts went unrewarded but the work in getting the ball into the dangerous positions in the first place pleased the coach.
"In terms of the brand of footy we played, we were quite pleased," Neeld said.
"We had a reasonable tackle result, we had a contested possession result we were pleased with.
"That means the younger players coming into the side are understanding the way we want to play".
