The Brisbane Lions’ gritty two-point victory over the Gold Coast SUNS on Saturday night has kept the Club in the race for a potential NAB Cup Grand Final berth.

In 2012, the NAB Cup format changed from what used to be an elimination process into a round robin-style tournament where teams compete for points and percentage throughout the first month of the pre-season.

The first round of NAB Cup matches concluded yesterday, with each team now having played two matches.

Only three teams - West Coast, Adelaide and Collingwood - proceeded through the round of shortened games undefeated, while the Lions are among 12 sides to have secured one win.

The current NAB Cup ladder has the Lions in 11th position, with a percentage of just under 100.

The Lions will face undefeated Adelaide in Alice Springs this Saturday, before playing Carlton in an historic first clash on the Sunshine Coast the following week.

The Lions need to win both matches, and rely on other results going their way, to be any chance of participating in the NAB Cup Grand Final, which is scheduled to be played for Saturday 17 March.

But regardless of last weekend’s results, Senior Coach Michael Voss said he saw enough to be pleased with his team’s efforts.

“You look for certain things out of your first game, and competitive intent is one of the things you’re after,” Voss said.

“I thought our players’ attack on the footy was first class in a lot of instances.”

The current AFL NAB Cup standings, based on the first round of shortened games, is as follows: 

1. West Coast (two wins, 189%)
2. Adelaide (two wins, 120%)
3. Collingwood (two wins, 120%)
4. Hawthorn (one win, 132%)
5. Fremantle (one win, 132%)
6. Sydney (one win, 124%)
7. Port Adelaide (one win, 109%)
8. Gold Coast (one win, 102%)
9. Richmond (one win, 100%)
10. Melbourne (one win, 100%)
11. Brisbane Lions (one win, 97%)
12. Western Bulldogs (one win, 96%)
13. Geelong (one win, 90%)
14. St Kilda (one win, 88%)
15. North Melbourne (one win, 77%)
16. Greater Western Sydney (zero wins, 89%)
17. Carlton (zero wins, 83%)
18. Essendon (zero wins, 50%)