It hardly lived up to its match-of-the-round billing but the Brisbane Lions' scrappy 10.17 (77) to 5.10 (40) AFL win over the underrated Kangaroos will surely make the rest of the league sit up and take notice.

Any remaining doubts over the Lions' finals claims evaporated when they still managed to snap the second-placed Kangaroos' five-game winning run despite a dodgy radar.

An inaccurate Lions (9-8-1) went through the motions but still clocked up their fifth-straight victory to keep an unlikely finals tilt on track.

Brisbane still have to win their remaining four games to guarantee September action but many teams will be nervous after the Lions comfortably disposed of the league's No.2 outfit despite a forgettable night with the boot.

The Roos came into the match outright second after winning 12 of their last 14 games - form only eclipsed by runaway ladder leaders Geelong.

But the visitors still started the game as underdogs against the 11th-ranked Lions according to the bookies.

Coleman Medal favourite Jonathan Brown again stood out with the boot - sometimes for all the wrong reasons.

Brown kicked six majors to take his season tally to 59 but also nabbed six behinds and hit the post twice in an erratic display.

He was ably backed by defender-turned-forward Wayde Mills (two goals).

Despite their inaccuracy, another worry for the Lions was a shoulder injury to Troy Selwood which forced him off in the opening minutes of the second quarter and an arm complaint picked up by Ash McGrath in the third term.

The victory put the Lions into the top eight but Matthews was still not entertaining finals thoughts.

"While it's in our hands I never know what is going to happen from week to week. We are a chance of beating anybody - and if we beat enough anybodies we will play finals, nothing's changed really," he said.

While disappointed with his side's inaccuracy, Matthews dipped his hat to his side's defensive pressure.

"I thought our tackling pressure was magnificent but we weren't taking our shots so the scoreboard never got to a comfortable margin," Matthews said.

Matthews hoped Selwood would be back next weekend against Hawthorn, but said McGrath may have suffered a broken wrist.

The Kangaroos' plight was not helped from the outset when veteran Glenn Archer withdrew from the match with a bad case of the flu.

"We left it until late this afternoon, thought he would be okay but he didn't come through," Kangaroos coach Dean Laidley said of Archer.

Asked what brought the `Roos undone, Laidley said: "At the end of the day Jonathan Brown has kicked six goals ... they had a forward who was potent on the night and we didn't.

"He probably could have kicked 10 or 15 goals ... he was a very good player for them."

Laidley refused to blame the result on the Kangaroos' tough schedule - the match was their fourth in 21 days including trips to Tasmania and Perth.

Brown lifted the Lions to a 5.10 (40) to 2.6 (18) lead at the main break with three first-half goals.

Brisbane were inaccurate but at least they could kick a goal in the first quarter, unlike a rusty Kangaroos outfit, kicking away to a 3.5 (23) to 0.1 (1) lead at the opening break.

Kangaroos majors to Aaron Edwards and Leigh Brown cut the deficit to just 10 points early in the second term but Jonathan Brown chimed in with the Lions' only two goals of the quarter to give them breathing space.

The Lions went into the final break up 7.14 (56) to 4.7 (31).

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