A FOUR-goal third-quarter burst by captain Jonathan Brown has helped inch the Brisbane Lions closer to their first finals appearance in five years with a 41-point win over North Melbourne on Saturday night.

In the absence of fellow forward Daniel Bradshaw (hamstring), Brown showed he could cope with the sole responsibility up front, destroying the Kangaroos with eight goals in the 17.14 (116) to 11.9 (75) victory.

The Lions led by 12 at quarter-time and 16 at the half, but Brown simply took over after the major break to shred the close checking of Josh Gibson and then Scott Thompson.

Brown’s haul was his biggest of the season and moves him to 63 goals, two in front of Carlton’s Brendan Fevola in the race for the Coleman Medal.

The Lions’ win moves them to an 11-6 record ahead of next week’s top-five showdown with Collingwood in Melbourne.

While Brown starred in the forward 50, he had a host of midfielders to thank for some delivery that improved as the night wore on.

Fellow stalwarts Simon Black (30) and Luke Power (26) just kept getting possessions, while the rucking and around-the-ground work of Mitch Clark was quite superb.

Youngsters James Polkinghorne (two goals) and third gamer Jack Redden (two) gave other forward options for the Lions.

North Melbourne kept coming all night and had 50 more possessions than the Lions but struggled to find targets forward.

Veterans Adam Simpson and Brent Harvey were tireless and grabbed 34 and 26 possessions respectively, while Levi Greenwood battled well in a running role with Daniel Rich, and Liam Anthony (27) also tried hard.

Corey Jones kicked four goals, while 50-gamer Lindsay Thomas was dangerous in the forward arc booting two.

After a slow start the Lions began to assert some ascendency as the first quarter wore on.

Brown kicked two in the term, one from a strong contested mark against Gibson, and a second after a beautifully weighted Redden pass saw him mark with the flight of the ball 30m from goal.

The double blow at the end of the quarter capped off four successive majors that gave the home team a 12-point lead at the break.

Justin Sherman was creating havoc with his run from the back half and was the catalyst for a goal to Black that helped reduce an early 12-point lead to the Kangaroos.

Redden stepped up in a scrappy second quarter to keep the Lions 16 points in front at the main change.

Both teams were guilty of turnovers, but the youngster playing just his third game coolly slotted twice on the run.

Just when the Lions had extended their lead to 20 early in the quarter and looked like running away with the contest, the Kangaroos answered through goal to Jones and a nice snap on the left foot by Todd Goldstein.

Brown was dropping some uncharacteristic marks in front of his face, while Greenwood was doing a great job in limiting Rich’s influence.

But Redden’s crumbing effort at the feet of Brown late in the quarter restored a healthy half-time advantage.

The skipper took over in the third quarter though, kicking four goals and thwarting any thoughts the Kangaroos had of getting back in the contest.

Thomas kicked the opening goal of term to reduce the lead to 10, but that was as close as it would get.

Rich got the next centre break and pin pointed a 50m pass to Jared Brennan who goaled and the Lions were away.

The best goal of the match came when the Lions swept the ball from their own goal line with a chain of passes that did not touch the turf, ending in Brown’s safe hands in the goal square.

Sam Sheldon also kicked his first goal in his 12th AFL game with a nice set shot from 30m.

MATCH DETAILS

Brisbane Lions        5.2    7.8    14.9    17.14 (116)
North Melbourne    3.2    5.4    8.6    11.9 (75)

GOALS
Brisbane Lions: Brown 8, Polkinghorne 2, Redden 2, Black, Brennan, Notting, Sheldon, Sherman
North Melbourne: Jones 4, Thomas 2, Campbell, Firrito, Goldstein, Hansen, Harvey

BEST
Brisbane Lions: Brown, Clark, Power, Black, Sherman, Rich
North Melbourne: Simpson, Harvey, Jones, Greenwood, Anthony, Gibson

INJURIES
Brisbane Lions: Collier (knee)
North Melbourne: Nil

Reports: Nil

Umpires: Hayden Kennedy, Chris Kamolins, Robert Findlay

Crowd: 25,509 at the Gabba


The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.

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