The Brisbane Lions' are prepared to fight fire with fire in Saturday night's semi-final against Greater Western Sydney.

The Giants advanced past the Western Bulldogs at the weekend playing a physically rugged brand of football, and Brisbane ruckman Stefan Martin says the Lions will be ready for similar tactics at the Gabba.

"They've got some tough guys that like to throw their weight around, and on a finals stage, if that worked for them on the weekend they'll probably want to replicate that," he said.

"They do what they want. They should play tough and we're going to play tough, too."

Brisbane is licking its wounds after a 47-point loss to Richmond and look like being without hard-nut Mitch Robinson, with the club awaiting results of his scans for a hamstring injury.

Regardless of Robinson's availability, the Lions have shown resilience and a willingness for tough contests all season.

The most notable example was the round 17 victory over Port Adelaide, when the Power went after Brownlow Medal fancy Lachie Neale, only to be blown off Adelaide Oval by the focused Lions.

"We were pretty proud we just got on with the job and watched the footy and did what we needed to do," Martin said. 

"That peripheral stuff, we don't want to get sucked into that.

"We don't mind if we lose the off-the-ball battles as long as we win the on-the-ball battles."

Interestingly, Neale might again be a central focus, with Giants tagger Matt de Boer fresh off claiming the scalp of Marcus Bontempelli to add to his growing list. 

De Boer was injured when Brisbane defeated the Giants in round 16 but is odds-on to get the job on his former Fremantle teammate.

"The first is we've got to look after Lachie and bring him into the game when the opportunity arises, but you don't want to rob Peter to pay Paul," Martin said.

"We've got a pretty deep midfield too, we've got other guys that can be just as dangerous as Lachie, so if we have to do more we'll do that as well."