A lack of "respect" from interstate rivals will fuel the Brisbane Lions as they prepare for their second consecutive AFLW grand final appearance.
Despite reaching last year's inaugural AFLW decider, none of the captains surveyed at the start of the season predicted Brisbane would be there again - something that Lions players haven't forgotten ahead of Saturday's showdown with the Western Bulldogs at Ikon Park.
"I guess it is a little bit of motivation," skipper Emma Zielke told reporters on Monday.
"No one tipped us to be in the top two again which is completely fine with us.
"We kind of thrive off that.
"We stick to our four walls down here in Queensland and we love the thought that we're the underdogs all the time."
After two seasons of the competition, no team has a better overall win-loss record than Brisbane.
They went through last season undefeated before losing in the grand final to Adelaide and were one of four teams to suffer three defeats this year - yet utility Britt Gibson said the Lions had come to expect being ignored by observers down south.
"It doesn't really surprise us much, to be honest," she said.
"We've been rated as the underdogs and probably lacking that little bit of respect.
"We're working as a team to build that respect amongst the competition.
"All we can do is keep winning and build that respect."
The Lions will head into the grand final as outsiders with bookmakers, having fallen by nine points in their round-two meeting with the Bulldogs.
But they deny suggestions that luck has anything to do with their qualification after three different results fell their way to ensure they would finish in second place on the ladder.
To make it, Brisbane needed a big percentage-boosting win over GWS on Friday night, then for the Bulldogs to beat Melbourne on Saturday, and Collingwood to edge Adelaide on Sunday.
"Our season was up and down and you didn't really know what was going on because everyone's results were all over the place," Zielke said.
"I don't think it's luck that we're in the grand final - it's another opportunity for us to be in the second one in a row.
"Our hard work paying off from November 22 is showing and we get to have another crack at it."
