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Brisbane have defeated Port Adelaide by 48 points to rise to third on the AFL ladder.

Coach Chris Fagan is hailing Brisbane's new-found maturity for coping with an "over-the-top" attack on star midfielder Lachie Neale during a 48-point AFL drubbing of Port Adelaide.

Neale was targeted relentlessly early in Brisbane's 14.13 (97) to 6.13 (49) victory on Sunday at a rain-soaked Adelaide Oval.

But the Power's strong-arm tactics backfired as the Lions produced a stunning spree of seven-consecutive goals in the initial 22 minutes.

"I thought it was a bit over the top, to be honest," Fagan said of Port's treatment of Neale.

"He got pounded, didn't he? But, hopefully what it shows is that we're not a one-man band in our midfield - we have got a lot of guys in there that can contribute."

Port deployed a hard tag on Neale from Cam Sutcliffe, who was a member of Neale's wedding party.

Neale was harassed at almost every step, including being bumped over by Port's Dougal Howard in an off-the-ball hit which was penalised and resulted in a Lions goal.

"Lach handled it well and our team did too," Fagan said.

"We didn't go crazy and we kept playing the ball."

Port coach Ken Hinkley admitted his players "misplaced" their aggression towards Neale, who finished with 24 disposals and five inside 50s.

"We don't make any apologies for being an aggressive football side," Hinkley said.

"(But) we made some mistakes early in that game with our aggression.

"Clearly with Lachie Neale, we were trying to defend him and slow him down ... in the past, he is a player who has caused us (an) enormous amount of grief.

"What Brisbane showed is, as a collective, they were still too good for us."

The Lions rise to third on the ladder and will play four of their six remaining games at their Gabba home base.

But Port's yo-yo season continued, sliding from seventh to ninth and still without successive wins since rounds five and six.

Lions captain Dayne Zorko was superb with three goals and 24 disposals, teammate Charlie Cameron booted four goals in his 100th AFL game and Jarryd Lyons collected a game-high 36 disposals.

Port's Sam Gray scored two majors while defender Darcy Byrne (30 possessions), Robbie Gray (32 disposals, one goal), Travis Boak (32 disposals) and Ollie Wines (32 touches) battled against the tide.

But the Power's loss was compounded by the loss of backman Ryan Burton. He faces at least a month on the sidelines after tearing a hamstring when chasng Lions livewire Cameron in the third quarter.