The Magpies were dealt a late blow before the Easter Thursday Gabba clash when Daicos, who had struggled all week with a corked calf, was unable to complete the warm-up and scratched.
The Lions, dealing with a raft of their own key injuries, then ran rampant in a 17.17 (119) to 10.5 (65) win that could have been larger if not for some missed opportunities through the middle two quarters.
The Lions collected 131 contested possessions to the Magpies' 93 and had 20 marks inside 50 compared to the visitors' five.
Young Lions forward Logan Morris (three goals) took nine marks alone while Oscar Allen (three goals) and Kai Lohmann (four goals) profited.
"Honestly, I felt like we got outplayed for most of the night," McRae said.
"There's a lot of stuff right in front of us we can fix really quickly and we need to get to work on that.
"The aerials, normally one of our great strengths … we got exposed.
"And they were just swarming to the next contest. You win the ball you're out, you're gone. You don't? Good luck."
McRae expects a three-day break will help Daicos loosen up his corked calf, while his latest conversations with Pendlebury indicated that, after battling a "grumbly" Achilles, he'd be fit to face Fremantle on Friday at Adelaide Oval during Gather Round.
"It's a corky, you'd think it starts to move," McRae said of Daicos.
"And Pendlebury said 'I feel good' ... If his word's anything he'd be hard to leave out."
