IT MAY not technically be a home game, but the Brisbane Lions will be taking any advantage they can from playing on the Gold Coast against North Melbourne on Saturday night.
Despite many incentives from the AFL, the Kangaroos decided against relocating to the Queensland tourist strip, and the round 18 fixture is the ongoing legacy from initial consideration of a move away from Arden St.
North’s decision to commit to Melbourne means Saturday night's game will be the last one they host in the region and Lions coach Leigh Matthews confirmed it wouldn’t really feel a like a home game, but it might just be close enough to spark his stumbling troops, who have fallen to eighth after three losses from their past four games.
"Well it's not our home ground, but it's our home state," he said in Brisbane on Friday.
"I know they'll be flying to the game, and we'll be driving.
"But it's always nice to have the home crowd support and I think there will probably be more (Lions supporters than Kangaroos supporters).
"And that always gives a bit of emotional stimulus to the players."
On the back of three straight wins, North Melbourne are flying high in fifth spot, while the Lions now find themselves in a log-jam of six teams separated by just four points trying to sneak into the finals.
After a slick opening to 2008, the Lions have faltered in recent weeks, including disappointing losses to bottom-placed Melbourne and last week's final-quarter capitulation against Richmond.
It is likely the Lions will need to win three of their last five games to play finals for the first time since losing to Port Adelaide in the 2004 decider.
With Hawthorn and the Western Bulldogs looming in the weeks ahead, Matthews stopped short of calling Saturday night's game a must-win, but said every match was taking on more importance in the run home.
"I don't know if it's a must-win," he said.
"If we win three games, then I guess we play finals, if we win five, then we definitely play.
"Having said that, the margin for error is getting greatly reduced.
"You would rather win now than be thinking, ‘we'll know we've got to win our last three’.”
A number of narrow losses have put question marks over the Lions' ability to go the distance and Matthews called on his players to go hard until the final siren.
"We've had a couple of games where if we had played better in the final minute we would have won, but we didn't, and we lost them," he said.
A win to North will increase the pressure on the injury-ravaged Sydney Swans for a spot in the top four, while a Lions win will help to keep a host of teams, including St Kilda, Richmond and Carlton, from surging past them in the race to the finals.
