Humble Sydney stood up yet again to the bruisers of the AFL, the Brisbane Lions, to spring a stunning 32-point upset of the triple premiers at the SCG.

Troubled by injuries all year, Sydney amazingly had the competition leader's measure from the opening bounce to kick 12.11 (83) to Brisbane's 7.9 (51) in front of a sellout crowd of 34,926 in fine but at times slippery conditions.

Sydney led by 16, 21 and 38 points at each change and three minutes into the final term, the Lions, wearing a strip that paid tribute to the old Bad News Bears days, had to kick more than seven goals to win but managed only 2.1 in a stale final quarter shut down by stoppages.

Brisbane beat Adelaide by 141 points last week, but Sydney's Paul Bevan, Michael O'Loughlin and Ryan O'Keefe each kicked two goals as the Swans kept the ball off Brisbane all night.

Luke Ablett, Nic Fosdike, Jared Crouch in his 150th consecutive game, and Craig Bolton were barely best afield from a long list of Sydney contributors.

Tim Notting was best for Brisbane with three goals while Michael Voss, Nigel Lappin, Blake Caracella, and Luke Power led the lacklustre Lions.

Sydney held a 21-point advantage at halftime after getting off to flyer in the first term, kicking 3.6 to Brisbane's 1.2 for a lead of 16 points heading into the second quarter.

Sydney applied a choker hold on the game by crowding the ball and forcing a long series of stoppages in the second and final terms after building leads of 28 and 45 points respectively.

The Lions never got out of second gear while the Swans experimented successfully with spearhead Barry Hall playing a long way from the goal square and centre-half back Adam Goodes and ruckman Jason Ball turning up on the forward line at times.

Sydney (10-8) leapfrogs the Kangaroos and should hold onto seventh by percentage over Essendon in eighth after the Bombers 40-point win over Port Adelaide.

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