Brisbane coach Leigh Matthews says his team does not deserve to be labelled as 'chokers' despite the Lions' appalling record in close games.

For the third time in just five matches, the Lions were beaten on Saturday night after leading late in the final quarter and as a result have dropped out of the top eight and now need to win three of their last four matches to reach the finals after appearing to be September certainties when they won seven of their first eleven matches.

But the Lions face a tough run with matches to come against Hawthorn, the Bulldogs, Carlton and Sydney in Sydney.

Against the Kangaroos on Saturday night, the Lions led by four points at the 21 minute mark of the last term yet lost by eight - after Travis Johnstone ran into an open goal and missed when he could have given his team a nine point lead - while the previous week the Lions threw away an eight point lead at the 28 minute mark of the final term to lose to Richmond by three points.

And in round 14 they led bottom team Melbourne by 11 points at the 29 minute mark of the last term yet lost by a point to give the Demons one of just two wins for the year.

But even more damning is the fact that since Leigh Matthews became coach in 1999, the Lions have been involved in 29 matches that have been decided by eight points or less and have won just four of them.

However Matthews said on Monday it was unfair to label his team as "chokers" under pressure.

"That is going too far, it's just going too far," Matthews said when asked to respond to the choker tag on Monday.

But Matthews said he could understand why his team was now carrying one of the most unwanted labels in professional sport.

"The definition of that (choking) is when you are a winning position and you don't win so for a couple of weeks we have given people ammunition to make those comments."

Matthews admitted to a feeling of 'deja vu' on Saturday night as he again watched his team throw away victory through poor kicking for goal.

"I think the first thing everyone would have felt after Saturday night's game was it (another close loss) has happened again and that is not great for your confidence."

"We played well but we lost the game because