BRISBANE Lions defender Harris Andrews has attributed his rich vein of form to the lessons learned from carefully scrutinising the game’s elite.

Andrews has been among Brisbane’s best in a largely frustrating season for the Lions, thrusting himself firmly into the conversation for All Australian selection, where he could become just the fourth Lions player to earn an All Australian berth since 2004.

Only Jonathan Brown (twice), Tom Rockliff and Dayne Zorko have achieved the feat in the past 13 seasons.

Andrews continued his stellar season with a best-on-ground performance for the Lions in Brisbane’s 22-point loss to Essendon on Sunday, producing the highest-scoring game (30.5 points) by a key defender since the official AFL player ratings were first calculated in 2010.

Andrews admitted he had been closely studying elite defenders such as Richmond’s Alex Rance and West Coast’s Jeremey McGovern in a bid to improve his game.

“I spend a lot of time watching their footage, trying to pick up little things from their games,” Andrews said.

“They have been performing at such a high level for the last few years, you’d be silly not to watch.”

Andrews has remarkably similar statistics to four-time All Australian Rance in 2018.

Both have taken 78 marks and averaged 17 disposals per game but Andrews maintains the thought of an All Australian berth has not entered his mind.

“I’m not really thinking about that stuff (All Australian selection), it takes care of itself,” he said

“You have guys like Alex Rance and Jeremy McGovern absolutely killing it at the top level.

“I guess to be thought of in that company is pretty exciting, but at the same time I am just looking to get results and improve day to day.”

Brisbane enters this weekend’s bye with just one win from their first 12 games. Despite the lack of results, the Lions have shown promising signs of improvement, conceding 18 points less per game than in 2017.

“It is obviously frustrating not to be able to (win the close games),” Andrews said.

“At the same time, we understand the path we are on and are looking for improvement each week.”

The Lions’ next match will be against GWS at the Gabba on Saturday week.