FORM GUIDE

All matches: Lions 1 – GWS 0

The Brisbane Lions were valiant in defeat last weekend against the finals-bound Tigers with only a painfully familiar slow start putting them out of the game.

Trailing by seven goals at half-time, the Lions were able to keep Richmond goalless in the third term and pulled the margin back to 16-points early in the final quarter before finally losing by 23 points.

Tom Rockliff, with his seventh 30-plus possession game for the year, was by far the standout for the Lions, while Sam Mayes (three goals), Brent Staker (two), Josh Green (two) and Pearce Hanley (two) all kicked multiples to help a forward line without Jonathan Brown.

The Giants endured their 18^th loss of 2013, going down to the fourth placed Fremantle by 113 points.

Despite losing by such a big margin, GWS had some shining lights in the performance.

Callum Ward picked up 29 disposals while Devon Smith had 10 tackles to go with his 18 touches.

Jeremy Cameron continued his elevation as one of the competition’s premier forwards booting four of the team’s six goals for the game.

The 20-year-old’s season tally is now at 58, almost 30% of the total goals scored by the GWS this season.

SELECTION TABLE

There have been four changes made at the Lions’ selection table this week, with Simon Black the biggest name returning after a lengthy stint on the sidelines.

Ash McGrath, Rohan Bewick and Mitch Golby also come back in after spells in the reserves.

Injuries to Justin Clarke (shoulder), Stefan Martin (hamstring) and Brent Moloney (hamstring) will see them miss, while Jesse O’Brien was omitted after two weeks in the senior team.

The big in for GWS is premiership ruckman Dean Brogan who will play his ninth game for the season.

Dylan Shiel, Stephen Gilham, Liam Sumner and Nicholas Haynes also return.

The outs for the Giants include: Devon Smith (Hip), Taylor Adams (Back), Joshua Bruce (Omitted), Thomas Downie (Omitted), and Sam Darley (Omitted).

KEY MATCH-UPS

Jeremy Cameron is the name on everyone’s lips, and rightly so after the 20-year-old continues to run rings around many of the competition’s best defenders this year.

Notable performances from Cameron include a scintillating seven-goal show against Collingwood in Round 18, and an impressive six goals when up against the highly rated Bombers defence in Round Six.

What makes Cameron so dangerous is his freakish ability when the ball hits the ground, often leaving some of the less agile defenders trailing behind.

This is where the likes of Joel Patfull or Elliot Yeo could prove to be a tougher opponent for Cameron.

With Patfull standing at 190cm and Yeo at 189cm, they give up a little bit of height to Cameron at 194cm, but it’s the ability of the Lions’ duo to match Cameron when the ball hits the ground that could see them better suited than more highly fancied defenders in the competition.

If the Lions can stop Cameron, they will go a long way to stopping GWS.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

If you can remember back to the last time these two met, the first quarter was ‘The Daniel Merrett Show’, with the Lions’ swingman reeling in mark after mark on his way to kicking five first quarter goals.

Expect the big man to put together another big one in the absence of Jonathan Brown.

Andrew Raines will likely go to Giants midfielder Callum Ward who had 11 more disposals than his next best teammate in last week’s loss to Freo.

After the Giants travelled to WA to play in a Sunday twilight game last weekend, expect Raines to cover a tired Ward and get a few kicks of his own.

Dean Brogan will have some good memories of playing against Brisbane with the Giants ruckman winning a Grand Final against the Lions when he was playing for Port Adelaide in 2004.

Despite only playing eight games so far this season, expect him to lift in what looms as his final outing against his old foe.

MISSING IN ACTION

Brent Moloney and Stefan Martin will be disappointed as they struggle to shrug niggling hamstring injuries, while promising defender Justin Clarke will miss the rest of the season after injuring his shoulder last weekend against Richmond.

Apart from season ending injuries to stars Jonathon Patton and Rhys Palmer, the Giants have no recent injuries and go into this week’s clash with an almost full list to choose from.

RECENT HISTORY

Recent history is all the history there is between these two teams, with the Round 8 encounter last year the only time Lions and Giants have met in a regular season game.

Daniel Merrett kicked seven goals while Jonathan Brown chimed in with five goals of his own and Tom Rockliff kicked three goals to go with his 36 possessions in a day out for the Lions

The 92-point victory was the Lions biggest winning margin since round 17, 2007 when they defeated Collingwood by 93 points.

Amid a week of controversy and drama, the Lions will be keen push all the politics aside, get onto the wide expanses of the Gabba and play some hard, quality footy against the GWS this Saturday night.

With the Giants grabbing their first win for the season against Melbourne two weeks ago, they will be keen to get over the top of a Lions outfit who may not be 100% focused on the task at hand after a event-filled week in the Lions’ Den.

The Lions, under the watchful eye of caretaker coach Mark Harvey, will be keen to stamp their authority early on in the game and claim another four points against a side below them on the ladder.

The Bounce: Saturday, August 17 at 7:40pm (local time) at The Gabba.

Lachlan Dyson is a regular contributor to lions.com.au. You can follow him on Twitter: @lachlandyson