BRISBANE coach Chris Fagan has backed the Lions' call to play Charlie Cameron off a knee scare after the gun small forward delivered an uncharacteristically quiet performance on Saturday.

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Cameron kicked just one behind and was held to five disposals in the Lions' nailbiting one-point win over North Melbourne. 

Just a week after finishing the Lions' thumping of the Western Bulldogs on ice, Cameron played with his knee heavily strapped and was spotted grabbing it late in the third term. 

"Our medical staff are as professional as there are in the competition and there's no way he would've played today if he wasn't right to play," Fagan said. 

"He was right to play. 

"It's one game in a football season and next week's a different set of circumstances again. It ebbs and it flows. 

"I don't think you can look too much into today and think that's going to transfer onto next week. The expectation is, we have an eight-day turnaround (ahead of St Kilda), we'll freshen up and we'll be ready to go." 

Fagan described his half-time spray captured on camera as "speaking with passion" after the Lions looked "flat but not complacent" in the arm wrestle at Metricon Stadium.

The loss left the Roos in 17th place but coach Rhyce Shaw was proud of his side's effort and highlighted the performance of midfielders Jed Anderson, Jy Simpkin and Luke Davies-Uniacke. 

"We certainly are, as a coaching group and as a club, really proud of that performance," Shaw said.

"I think our fans should be as well.

"I was really pleased with guys' attitude this week. It must be very difficult for them to keep rocking up each week, but they just continue to do it." 

The Roos played with 10 players under 22 years of age, with 10 players having fewer than 25 games to their name.