BRISBANE Lion Tom Rockliff is drawing on an unlikely win 12 months ago as inspiration for the biggest surprise of the season against Collingwood on Saturday night.

In round 10 last season the Lions had lost five matches straight and hosted the red-hot Magpies at the Gabba.

Despite trailing by 20 points during the third quarter, they lifted in Luke Power's 250th match and got home by eight points.

Rockliff, the no-nonsense 21-year-old vice-captain, said despite the disparity between the teams this season, the Lions had their eyes on four points.

Collingwood are the reigning premiers and with an 18-1 record this season are favoured to go back-to-back, while the Lions (4-15) have endured a miserable campaign despite beating Gold Coast last weekend.

Such is the gulf between the teams, Betfair has the Lions at $34 to win, with Collingwood at the virtually unbackable price of $1.02.

But it doesn't trouble Rockliff.

He said the Lions were the third-last team to beat the Magpies, so they entered the match with real confidence.

"We always seem to match up pretty well against them so we're going down there to get the four points; there's no shirking that issue at all.

"We want to win the game and that's what we're going down there to do."

Rockliff said he could not explain why the teams matched up well, but was quick to highlight last year's upset.

"They were in pretty good form and we'd lost a fair few on the trot and we still got the wood over them, so hopefully we can go down there this weekend and have a repeat of that," he said.

Besides a rampant Magpies outfit, one thing standing in the Lions' way is a woeful record at the MCG that has seen them win just once in their past 10 visits.

Rockliff is coming off the back of successive career-high outputs of 34 disposals against Adelaide and Gold Coast and signed a two-year extension to his contract that ensures he is a Lion until the end of 2014.

"I didn't even consider moving anywhere else," he said.

"I love the club, they've been great and they set a high standard on and off the field. They've been like a family to me and made me fit in from the start, so they're a great footy club and it's good moving forward."

Michael Whiting covers Brisbane Lions news for afl.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @mike_whiting