AS MEMORABLE as a one-point win over Geelong at the Gabba in 2019 was for Chris Fagan, the Brisbane coach knows the Cats have had the wood over the Lions for the best part of a decade.

Fagan says that victory two seasons ago was the first time he'd witnessed the Gabba at "full steam", as Brisbane went on to end a 10-season wait for finals football.

That win is however the Lions' only victory over the Cats in their past 12 meetings, stretching to 2013 and Fagan believes beating Chris Scott's team in Brisbane on Thursday night would be another big moment for the club.

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"They make you earn every win you get against them and to be truthful, we haven't been very successful at that over the last nine years or so," said Fagan, who celebrated his 60th birthday on Wednesday.

"They've had the wood on us for a long, long time - as have a lot of other teams over the course of the last few years and we've been able to meet that challenge.

"We've done it once but we want to try and do it again, there's no doubt about that."

The Lions couldn't have come any closer to recording a win in Geelong in round two this year, when a tackle by Zac Bailey on Mark Blicavs metres out from the Lions goal was incorrectly missed by the umpires and the Cats escaped with a one-point win.

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That game was marked by a quarter-time exchange between Scott and several Lions players but Fagan said he had no issue with his opposite number heading into Thursday's match.

"On the Richter scale that would rate as frivolous to me," Fagan said.

"I'll look back at the end of my career and I'll probably run into Scotty one day and we'll have a good laugh about that because much more has been made of it than what actually occurred in my opinion."

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Brisbane welcomes back captain Dayne Zorko for the match with either of Rhys Mathieson or Dev Robertson to make way.

The Cats head north with skipper Joel Selwood free to play after he was fined a combined $3000 by the AFL's Match Review Officer for two separate incidents in last week's after-the-siren win over the Western Bulldogs.