Brisbane coach Leigh Matthews says now is the time his team needs to find some consistency as the Lions look to consolidate their place in the top eight in coming weeks with three successive home matches - the first against St Kilda this Sunday at the Gabba.

Much to Matthews' frustration his team has gone loss/win/loss/win throughout the first eight rounds but Saturday night's surprisingly comfortable victory against Carlton at Telstra Dome saw the Lions reclaim a spot in the top eight.

However a defeat against the ninth-placed Saints on Sunday will again see the eighth-placed Lions fall from the top half of the ladder and Matthews is desperate to see his side string together successive wins for the first time this season.

"Where we are the moment is we keep going loss/win/loss win so we have been consistently inconsistent," he said on Monday.

"And we have to get out of that cycle if we are going to get something out of this season."

The Lions - with Jonathan Brown and Daniel Bradshaw already having kicked 52 goals between them and 2002 Brownlow Medalist Simon Black showing on Saturday night against the Blues that he is back to his best following groin problems - are widely considered to be the team most capable of challenging the top four teams in Geelong, Hawthorn, the Bulldogs and Adelaide.

Those four have already opened up a six-point break on fifth-placed Sydney with the Lions just half a game further back in eighth.

But Matthews says his team is still a long way off being a premiership contender again - having not played finals since the last of its four successive grand final appearances in 2004.

"We are nowhere near a premiership window," he said.

"We are in a window of where we are trying to get up from the middle of the list - which is fifth to 12th on the ladder."

"You have your top four and your bottom four and then the middle but it's amazing in that a premiership opportunity can open up for you when you least expect it."

"If you play well enough it opens up but if you take our last few years and while we have played some footy that enables us to play finals-type standard footy, we haven't done it for long enough yet."

With home games against St Kilda, followed by the Kangaroos and struggling Fremantle to come - Matthews realises the Lions are capable of