Richmond overcame an attack of yips, an aggressive Brisbane and some indifferent umpiring to score a deserved 31-point AFL win at the Gabba on Saturday night.

The final margin flattered Richmond who were made to fight hard, physically and mentally, for their 18.17 (125) to 14.10 (94) win to stay in touch with the top eight.

Brisbane kicked the first four goals of the game and, while the Tigers rallied to lead at halftime, they could not shrug the Lions off until deep into the last term.

Twice Richmond was on the verge of amassing a match-winning lead only to see the Lions fight back and threaten to steal the game.

The Tigers led by 16 points in the second term, but were headed in the third quarter, and they then built a 22-point lead in the third quarter before the Lions cut the margin to four.

Determined Brisbane midfielders Jack Redden, Simon Black and Tom Rockliff kept their side within striking distance, although Richmond's forwards were not helping their own cause.

By three-quarter time, 10 of Richmond's 13 behinds had been scored from set shots, most of them very gettable, well inside 50m.

Redden was also enforcer, applying some big hits while also getting physical with several Tigers including Daniel Jackson and Shane Edwards.

The aggressive tone was set before the opening bounce, when both midfield brigades started wrestling in an entertaining sideshow to the main act.

The turning point in the last quarter occurred when Chris Newman brought Lions' skipper Jonathan Brown to his knees with a heavy tackle inside 50m and then, moments later, when Brisbane midfielder Simon Black was streaming through the middle, Robert Nahas stopped him in his tracks.

From that point onwards, the Tigers rattled off five of the last seven majors to seal the match.

Tigers' midfielder Dustin Martin kicked five goals, while Tyrone Vickery booted four.

Lively Tigers' forward Jack Riewoldt was kept to two majors by Matt Maguire, and Brown - while kicking two goals - was well covered by Alex Rance.

The match was also a stop-start affair with 54 free kicks being awarded, 32 by halftime, which would normally be around the end-of-game statistic.

Richmond coach Damien Hardwick praised Martin for his five-goal return and the game-turning tackles of Nahas and Newman.

"It's amazing when the simple things are done well, you get the result you want," Hardwick said.

"It puts us back in the hunt (for the top eight).

"He (Martin) uses the ball well and I couldn't believe it when I saw he kicked five goals."

Lions' coach Michael Voss said they had their chances to win and, in the end, could not counter attack when it mattered most, like they had done on two previous occasions during the game.

"We certainly had our ascendancy in different parts of the game," Voss said.

"You have to make the most of them because you do have momentum in games.

"What we weren't able to do, we couldn't hold that wall and counter attack likewise."

He said key forward Mitchell Clark would miss at least one match after spraining an ankle, while nimble forward Todd Banfield suffered a hamstring injury.

"It's not a break, but it will certainly keep him (Clark) out for next week."

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