CHRIS Fagan has not shown his team one minute of vision from Brisbane's late-season thumping of Hawthorn ahead of Saturday's preliminary final.

The Lions belted the Hawks by 67 points at the Gabba in round 22 as both teams looked to shore up positions in the top four.

Ahead of the first meeting ever in September between the clubs, Brisbane's coach said this contest would be "entirely different" to the one six weeks ago.

"We were coming off a really bad loss the week before to Carlton, so were pretty fired up," Fagan said.

"I think they probably had an off game.

"I think you can't read too much into that performance.

"We're not even talking about or showing any vision from that game to be honest. It's a new contest, it's a preliminary final. They want what we want.

"We're getting ready for the hardest game we'll play this year. That's our approach."

Brisbane is playing its fifth consecutive preliminary final and sixth in the past seven years, having turned the MCG into something of a second home in recent seasons.

The two-time premiers have beaten Geelong and Collingwood in the same timeslot the past two years.

"There's some confidence from knowing we've done it before," he said.

"We've also lost preliminary finals too.

"They're really hard games to win because the prize is so huge, to play in a Grand Final. That little bit of experience will help us, but only so much.

"It was a hoodoo ground for us for a long, long, long time.

"I think we've developed a style of ball movement that suits that ground and hopefully it works out that way again this week."

Small defender Noah Answerth is being put through his paces at Brisbane's main training session at the Gabba on Thursday morning as he tries to overcome an ankle injury.

Fagan said there was "some optimism", but Answerth would have to be 100 per cent to take his place opposed to Hawks livewire Nick Watson.