The Sydney Swans reserves have continued their unbeaten start to the NEAFL season, surviving a late surge from the Brisbane Lions to record a seven-point win at Brisbane’s picturesque Giffin Park this afternoon.

With conditions perfect for football, the Swans jumped out of the blocks in the first quarter and held a 48-point lead in the late stages of the second quarter. It looked as though the team was cruising for another big victory against yet another NEAFL opponent, but to the Lions credit they lifted late in the quarter, kicking six of the quarter's last seven goals to only trail the Swans by 17 points at the main break.

The Swans accelerated again in the third term - kicking five goals to one - and when Byron Sumner finished off some brilliant footwork with a goal to again put the Swans up by 47 points, it looked like a canter to the line for the Eastern Conference leaders.

From there though, the Lions kicked the next 46 points to get within a point of the Swans, and it looked as if their ascendancy would carry them over the line for an extraordinary win. It was a nervy final few minutes for both sides, with the Swans controlling the ball deep in defence, before a transition the length of the field ended in Kane Murphy snapping a goal out of a pack and sealing the victory.

Jesse White finished as the Swans leading goalkicker with four, while Murphy, Paul Bevan, Eugene Kruger and Daniel Currie - who rucked admirably for the bulk of the day - all finished with two.

At stages throughout the contest, the Swans midfield of Dylan McNeil, Luke Parker, and Nathan Gordon were dominant, gathering countless possessions at will. However, when the Lions better players in Matt Maguire, Andrew Raines and Aaron Cornelius started to get on top, the Swans struggled to contain them and the scoreboard reflected this accordingly.

Amazingly, 23 of the 30 goals for the game were kicked to the southern end of the ground despite there not being any prevalent breeze throughout the afternoon.

After two consecutive trips north, the Sydney Swans reserves will be back at home next weekend as they take on Queanbeyan at the SCG from 10:40am in the lead in to next Sunday’s senior game against Richmond.