After a heated QClash 7 in round 3, Brisbane Lions coach Justin Leppitsch has said he doesn’t care if Saturday’s derby clash with the GC SUNS “gets spiteful”.

While the SUNS overwhelmed the visitors by 53 points at Metricon Stadium in the first encounter this season, the match was probably best remembered for Steven May’s monster shirtfront on Dayne Zorko and Lions defender Daniel Merett getting a two-week ban for late and high contact on David Swallow.

Leppitsch rated that performance his team’s worst of the year, and has flagged a more passionate display from his troops at home this week.

“As a coach, you don’t care if it gets spiteful, or not,” Leppitsch told The Courier Mail. “You just want the guys to be smart. You don’t want the guys to be giving away silly free kicks.

“Games sometimes spill that way. It’s not ideal when they do, but you can’t help the emotions on the footy field, sometimes.

“It’s how we act when we feel those emotions is the key.”

While Brisbane’s hopes of making the finals are non-existent, they can put a major dent in Gold Coast’s hopes of playing in September with a win at the Gabba on Saturday afternoon.

Leppitsch has taken little note of the SUNS’ last-start effort when the Western Bulldogs ran home over the top of them in Cairns over a week ago.

“I would have thought they walk away saying it was a fairly low-energy game from them...but you get that.

“We’ve had it, ourselves, after a big win. It only tends to last a week, so I wouldn’t be writing them off.”