INTERIM coach Mark Harvey has hosed down talk of the Brisbane Lions playing finals after their gripping seven-point win over the Western Bulldogs on Sunday.

The win pushed the Lions into 10th spot with a 10-11 win-loss record ahead of a trip to Simonds Stadium to play Geelong next Saturday in the final round.

If, as has been widely reported, Essendon is set to lose its premiership points during the week, the ninth-placed team will play in the finals.

Currently that is Carlton (on the same points as the Lions, but with vastly superior percentage), which travels to play Port Adelaide in the final AFL match at AAMI Stadium next Saturday.

While the Lions need the Bombers to lose their points, the Blues to lose their match, and the Cats to lose all semblance of their form, Harvey was not entertaining the idea in his post-match press conference.

"That's not our decision so we can only sit back and wait," Harvey said.

"We've won 10 games this year and we are in a lot better form. We go down to Geelong knowing we can challenge them and find out exactly where we are at."

The Lions will likely be without key-position player Daniel Merrett who was stretchered off early in the third quarter with an ankle injury.

Harvey said Merrett was having scans and could not comment further, but the immediate prognosis did not look good.

The Lions did their best to throw away a 57-point lead against the Bulldogs, who got within five points late in the last term.

Harvey said the events of the past two weeks – including Michael Voss's sacking and a split between the board – had not affected the players.

"We haven't been unnerved by the situation, we have gotten on with our training and planning and had a real emphasis on defending," he said.

"We are starting to see the rewards of that but we need to do it more consistently.

"We are starting to establish ourselves up here but it is important to see what we can do on the road, then back it up against a top-two team."