Brisbane star Daniel Rich says the Lions must share the load to beat North Melbourne

LIONS star Daniel Rich knows his side will have to share the load on Saturday night if they are to beat North Melbourne.

Daniel Rich

LIONS star Daniel Rich knows his side will have to share the load on Saturday night if they are to beat North Melbourne and win successive games for the first time this season.

Confidence is high in the Lions camp after their 33-point win over the Gold Coast Suns on Saturday but inconsistency and a failure to fire for four quarters has plagued Brisbane all season.

As a result, they have won only five of their 14 games, with finals football remaining a slim hope at best.

A string of winnable matches in the next seven weeks, including clashes with fellow battlers Melbourne, St Kilda, Greater Western Sydney and the Western Bulldogs, has Rich believing September action is more than a pipedream.

"A lot of things have to go our way if that's going to happen, but it's in the back of our minds," the gun midfielder said after the Lions announced the Mater Foundation as the club's official charity partner for the next three years.

"The main focus is this weekend and playing good footy against the Roos. We're playing back-to-back home games and hopefully get back-to-back wins. We haven't done that for a while.

"Heading forward with a young group, it's important to win these types of games."

Victory will not be achieved with a shoddy effort similar to Brisbane's performance against the Kangaroos the last time the sides met.

North Melbourne thrashed the Lions by 63 points in at Etihad Stadium in April.

"It was a very disappointing game last time we played them, but the good thing about footy is you get to make up for those kind of games," Rich said.

"They're in a similar position to us. They had a good win last week against a good team in Richmond, so they'll be pretty confident, but we've just got to play our brand of footy, play well at the Gabba, and show our supporters that we're heading in the right direction."

The 14th-placed Lions will again have to get the job done without champion onballer Simon Black, who will miss another game due to his groin injury.

It is a safety first approach from Black, who feared rushing back too early would have led to him aggravating the injury and potentially missing another handful of games in his final season.