BRISBANE Lions coach Leigh Matthews said it was unfair to label his side chokers despite their poor record in close games this season.

The Lions' loss to North Melbourne on Saturday night was another in which they held the lead late in the final quarter but were unable to hang on.

In round 17 they gave up an eight-point lead against Richmond in the closing stages while in round 14 they surrendered an 11-point advantage to Melbourne.

The defeat to the Kangaroos meant the Lions dropped out of the top eight but, despite another fading performance, Matthews was adamant it wasn't a case of choking.

"That is going too far, it's just going too far," Matthews said on Monday.

The veteran coach said he could understand why the tag could be applied, but believed the narrow losses were simply a case of inaccuracy in front of goal.

"The definition of (choking) is when you are in a winning position and you don't win so for a couple of weeks we have given people ammunition to make those comments," he said.

"(On Saturday night) we played well but we lost the game because we didn't take the chances when we got them (and) pure accuracy conversion wins and loses you games.

"The last two weeks we have kicked inaccurately and conversion accuracy is one of football's great skills.

"Getting the ball in the first place is difficult but converting is the cream on the cake and winning and losing comes from that."