Last month, when Gold Coast and Collingwood fans took a look at their team’s run home to Finals, they would have probably put a green tick next to upcoming matches against the Brisbane Lions.

And you wouldn’t have blamed them.

After all, the Lions sat 17th on the ladder with just four wins for the season and didn’t have the same September incentive driving them towards the final months of the season.

The Lions have known for some time that they weren’t going to be part of AFL Finals action in 2014, but they’ve since done a good job of making sure that both Gold Coast and Collingwood won’t be either.

Resounding wins over the Suns and Magpies in Rounds 18 and 21 respectively has made the Finals formula decidedly more difficult for both sides.

The wins have helped the Lions climb a few rungs on the AFL ladder, but more than that, it’s shown that the Club is far from being a spent force in 2014 and could still prove a key player in the make-up of the top eight.

The Lions have arguably been playing their best football for the year in the past couple of months – save for a couple of blemishes, including the capitulation against Adelaide in Round 20 at the Gabba.

The next fortnight promises to be an incredibly difficult fixture for the Club, who face genuine premiership fancies Fremantle and Geelong to close out their campaign.

The Dockers are clinging to a top four spot with Port Adelaide breathing down their neck, while the Round 23 clash against Geelong will likely determine whether the Cats finish inside the top two and secure a valuable home ground advantage throughout the Finals series.

Few people would be giving the Lions much hope of toppling their highly rated opponents, but the same was said ahead of the Gold Coast and Collingwood clashes – and if either were to drop a match against the 15th placed team, it could prove very costly to their flag chances.

Far from being ‘irrelevant’ to the 2014 Finals picture, the Lions have proven capable of shaking things up at the business end of the season.