A "Welcome Back Lethal" banner was unfurled by a Brisbane Lions fan at the Gabba on Sunday night.
But interim Lions coach Mark Harvey would have only been dreaming about a Daniel Merrett return after they kept their faint AFL finals hopes alive with a tense seven-point win over Western Bulldogs.
Former premiership-winning coach Matthews was the name on everyone's lips before the match after he launched a rival ticket set to topple Lions chairman Angus Johnson and re-start the race for Paul Roos' signature.
However, Merrett was Harvey's main concern after the match as he contemplated launching an unlikely finals tilt at Geelong next round if Essendon loses points over the supplements saga.
The 28-year-old was stretchered off early in the third term and sent straight to the hospital for ankle scans - and the Lions' winning hopes seemed to go with them.
Brisbane remarkably squandered a 57-point lead - a slide that began when Merrett fell awkwardly in a tackle - before holding on to a 15.10 (100) to 13.15 (93) win.
Their sixth straight home victory of the year was soured though with the loss of Merrett for their crunch clash in Geelong.
Brisbane jumped from 13th to 10th on the AFL ladder with their sixth win in eight games.
And Harvey tried to sound optimistic about extending that run despite being without their talismanic fullback.
"It appears it is around the ankle but it is highly unlikely we will see him again," he said.
Asked about their finals chances, Harvey said: "We go down to Geelong knowing we can challenge them and find out exactly where we are at."
A week after reeling from coach Michael Voss' shock departure, the Lions lined up on Sunday night with yet another major distraction hanging over their heads.
However, the Lions seemed oblivious as they romped to a 13.2 (80) to 4.6 (30) halftime lead.
At one stage in the second term Brisbane were flying high after Dayne Zorko's second consecutive running goal - and the Lions' fifth straight - blew the deficit out to 57 points.
Remarkably the Lions would only kick 2.8 for the rest of the game.
The visitors kicked eight out of nine goals on their way to reducing the deficit to just five points in the dying moments before the 20,130-strong Gabba faithful willed the Lions home.
The win avenged their surprise 68-point opening round loss to the Bulldogs - but also provided the Lions with so much more judging by Harvey.
"I think we learned a lot about our playing group," he said.
Tom Rockliff had 33 touches for the Lions while Merrett was one of seven players who kicked two majors.
For the Bulldogs, Tom Liberatore had 27 disposals including a remarkable 14 clearances while Luke Dahlhaus kicked three goals.
