A stoic defensive effort in the final quarter helped a wayward kicking Brisbane Lions Reserves to a satisfying four-point upset of the Gold Coast Suns Reserves at Coorparoo today.

The Lions stacked their defence and ran the ball forward to the non-scoring end after leading by just four points at the final change, triumphing 11.17 (83) to 12.7 (79).

Returning Lion Daniel Rich was important across half-back in the decisive final term, while Karmichael Hunt returned from a heavy head knock to finish as close to the Suns’ best player for the day.

“We were tickled pink,” Lions coach Nathan Clarke said afterwards. “The supporters that were here, and there wasn’t a lot of them, were pretty excited. They erupted a bit at the end.”

The victory gave the Lions a chance to haul themselves off the bottom of the premiership table, but need Labrador to lose at Broadbeach tomorrow and win again themselves next week.

The victory ended a sequence of six close games without a victory and continued the Lions’ good form from last week, where they drew with reigning premier Morningside.

Clarke had targeted this game as a must-win for his side after two poor losses to the Suns previously.

“I just didn’t want us to get blown away by them again,” he said. “We certainly felt we outplayed them and that was reflected in the scoreboard.”

The Lions started well, with Amon Buchanan and Josh Dyson busy in the midfield and Broc McCauley providing a strong marking target.

They booted 4.6 and three out of bounds on the full to the Suns’ 1.2 in the opening term, and appeared to have paid a heavy price when the visitors blasted 7.3 to six behinds in a brilliant second term.

Hunt was strong in the clinches and prolific around the clearances while Luke Russell was also good for the Suns.

The Lions held the Suns to just two scoring shots in the third, although both were goals, but did straighten up themselves to hit the lead.

“We kicked a horrendous amount of behinds, it was horrible,” Clarke said. “We had five out of bounds on the full from direct shots. Including those we had nearly double their scoring shot to three quarter time which kept them in it.”

While Buchanan and Dyson were still winning a glut of midfield ball, past experience convinced Clarke to lock down on the Suns.

“When we played the Swans here (at Coorparoo), the scoring end was towards the scoreboard and it was panning out that way,” he said. “I didn’t think we’d done enough to three quarter time because we were only four points up.

“We stacked our backline trying to hang on and generate a bit of overlap run from our back half and that worked pretty well in the end.”

Rich and Dyson led the rearguard action.

“They’ve saved us a bit in the end with their experience and composure,” Clarke said.

Rowan Bewick kicked two goals for the Lions before leaving at three-quarter-time as the senior emergency, but Buchanan covered with an outstanding four quarter performance.

“Amon had a lot of the footy - his reckless attack on the footy was inspiring,” Clarke said.

Midfielder Hunt and defender Jack Huchins were outstanding for the Suns, who are cemented in third place on the premiership table.

Hunt left the field with blood streaming from his head in the third quarter following a heavy collision with Lion Brad Harvey.

The two both had their head over a loose ball and Clarke praised the courage of both players, Harvey having a swollen eye socket afterwards.

“Neither of them took a backward step, we were really proud of Brad for that,” he said.

Lions tagger Richard Newell did a sound job against livewire Brandon Matera, who only threatened to get away from him early in the last quarter.

Young ruckman Tom Hickey did some good things for the Gold Coast to continue his push for a senior berth, while Josh Caddy also impressed the Suns coaching staff.

Mt Gravatt top-up player Cam Bernasconi played on Nathan Ablett and kept him to two goals.

While the Suns were happy with Ablett’s output and named him in their best, Clarke was delighted with Bernasconi.

“He took intercept marks and used the ball with composure- he was outstanding.”