ON BRENDAN Fevola’s last trip to the Gabba, he was the dominant force with eight goals as Carlton knocked off the Brisbane Lions in a thriller.

Lions captain Jonathan Brown believes stopping the Blues’ spearhead will be more than a one-man job when the two teams meet again in Saturday night’s elimination final.

When Fevola went on his mid-season scoring spree, the Lions were without full back Daniel Merrett who was out with an ankle injury.

The reliable vice-captain is against likely to be missing in action after being forced to sit out the round 22 win over the Swans with a hamstring injury.

Fevola has kicked 13 goals in two matches against the Lions this season and Brown said putting the clamps on him would be crucial to success.

“It is a big concern and it would be nice to have him [Merrett] there, there’s no doubt about that,” Brown said.

“But we’ll have to find an alternative. It will be up to all of our defenders to work together and cut off his runs.”

When Fevola ran riot last time, Daniel Bradshaw got the job in the first half before Joel Macdonald was moved to the key post in the second.

The mercurial Blue got the better of both.

“He’ll have one primary opponent, but it’ll be up to all our defenders,” Brown said.

“We might have learned something (from last loss). We could go down a different path.

“Lachie Henderson and Jason Roe have done good jobs on big name players, particularly against Buddy Franklin and Jarryd Roughead when we beat Hawthorn. Joel Patfull is an All-Australian calibre defender who can play on all types, big and small, so we could go a number of ways.”

Brown did not completely rule out a return of either Merrett, Bradshaw (quad), Josh Drummond (quad) or Simon Black (hamstring), saying coach Michael Voss would likely give them the whole week to prove their fitness.

He said regardless of the personnel, the Lions’ team principles remained the same in defeating a team that has had their measure twice this season.

“We’ve got to tackle well, pressure the opposition well and fight it out until the end, which we’ve done the last two weeks.

“We’re a terrific tackling side and that can be brought to the table no matter who lines up so we have to get the basics right and I have no doubt we will.”

While Fevola grabbed his second Coleman Medal with 86 majors this year, Brown was second on 78, which is equal to a Lions club record.

However he felt no extra pressure on to perform superhuman feats in September.

“My primary function is that I have a young forward line around me and I need to make sure they’re playing their positions and that I’m getting shots on goal and finishing them or assisting in them,” he said.

“I’m very excited to be playing finals but [I] won’t be changing much.”