Received

Lessons learned from previous heartbreak have lifted the AFL finals monkey off Brisbane's back and, behind Lachie Neale's irrepressible form, restored their premiership belief.

The Brownlow Medal favourite had 39 touches and doubled his season average to finish with 15 clearances in a two-point defeat of Richmond in an elimination final at the Gabba that had 17 lead changes.

Neale played the entire second half to rack up those numbers which came despite the Lions being dominated 55-16 in hit-outs after losing ruckman Oscar McInerney in the third minute.

The final lead change came with 64 seconds to play, Joe Daniher making up for some costly moments earlier in the night to toe home a loose ball for the winning goal.

The 16.10 (106) to 16.8 (104) win was Fagan's second from seven finals games in the last four seasons, a record that's proved a lingering sore point at the club this year.

Captain Dayne Zorko hailed Neale's night as "one of the greatest games he's seen ... in one of the greatest years of all time", telling SEN "hopefully now the (finals) monkey's off the back".

Neale said it showed his men had learnt from their past failings that include gut-wrenching one and three-point finals losses at the Gabba in 2021 and 2019 respectively.

"We've had our fair share of heartbreaks over the last couple of years in finals so to be on the other end of it is a great feeling," he told AAP.

"Learned lessons from the past finals losses ... and we were able to put it to work tonight.

""There were a couple of times where they kicked two in a row or three on a row but we were able to stem that ... in the last few weeks we've allowed teams to eight or nine in a row and get blown away."

Brisbane now play the loser of Friday's qualifying final between Melbourne and Sydney and are suddenly back in the picture.

"We've seen over the last few years where teams have come from elimination finals and make grand finals and Bulldogs won it in 2016 that way," Neale said.

"There's certainly belief."

The Lions went in without midfielder Jarryd Lyons (groin), defender Marcus Adams (concussion) and suspended pair Cam Rayner and Noah Answerth.

And when they lost McInerney in the third minute, there were flashbacks to a year earlier when Dan McStay's early exit paved the way for a straight-sets finals exit.

Coach Chris Fagan was in awe of Neale's clean hands, composure and impact in a fast-paced final while he said their ability to overcome the early injury showed their progress since last year.

"It was one of the great finals games you'll ever see," Fagan said.

"We want to win more finals, so we won't get carried away with ourselves.

"But if ever there was a way for us to show you're made of the right stuff, I think tonight we showed that."

Brisbane won't have McInerney or Adams for next week's semi-final, but after 18-year-old debutant Darcy Wilmot and Deven Robertson's performances Fagan will have welcome headaches reinstating Answerth, Rayner and potentially Lyons.

Darcy Fort, named captain of the Lions' VFL side in his first season at the club, is a capable replacement for McInerney in the ruck.

© AAP 2022

Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy believes it's inevitable a team will one day win the NRL from outside the top four, with three of the NRL's genuine contenders all bound for elimination finals.

The Storm's 22-14 loss to Parramatta on Thursday night left them outside the league's top four for just the second time since 2006 with a do-or-die month of football ahead.

The Sydney Roosters and South Sydney also face a similar scenario, with the two arch-rivals all but guaranteed to face off two weeks in a row and in an elimination final next weekend.

History would suggest all three of the game's heavyweights are now out of contention, with no team in the NRL era having come from outside the four to win the premiership.

But while Bellamy understands why it is so difficult to do so, he believes there is still any chance the trend can be bucked this season.

"It's hard to do that. To win the comp, you have to win four games in a row, and the last three of them you're travelling," Bellamy said.

"It is difficult without a doubt, but it's going to get done at some stage.

"There's some quality teams this year, and there's not a lot of difference in the teams.

"Certainly, Penrith were probably the real stand out early in the season, but there's a lot of things that change towards the end of the season, after Origin.

"I still think there'll be a few twists and turns that come before it all finishes."

While no team has pulled off the feat in the NRL era, Canterbury came from sixth spot in 1995 to shock minor-premier Manly in the grand final.

In the AFL, which uses the same top-eight system as the NRL, the Western Bulldogs won from seventh in 2016 while Adelaide did likewise from fifth in 1998.

The most likely scenario remains that the Storm face Canberra in Melbourne next weekend in an elimination final, provided the Raiders beat Wests Tigers to finish eighth above Brisbane.

Canberra were able to knock over the Storm at AAMI Park in July, and have won their last four games in Melbourne dating back to 2019.

But working firmly in Melbourne's advantage will be an extra three days' rest on Canberra, with Storm halfback Jahrome Hughes also likely to be back from a calf complaint in time.

"The benefit of tonight is we've played Thursday," Bellamy said after the loss to the Eels.

"And we won't have to travel. So that's our biggest benefit. Hopefully, we can use that wisely.

"The Raiders have had the wood on us, probably at home the three or four (games).

"We'll take a couple of days to rest up and then we'll get into our preparation and, hopefully, we'll be a bit fresher next week."

© AAP 2022

The role of migration and training in fixing the skills and labour shortage crisis will be a key discussion point at the jobs summit.

Over 140 representatives will gather for the second and final day of the summit at Parliament House in Canberra on Friday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will wrap up proceedings on Friday afternoon after using the first day to announce an additional 180,000 fee-free TAFE places by 2023 as part of a major training package.

Mr Albanese also flagged further announcements for Friday.

"There's a range of measures that we're seeing come to agreement," he told the ABC on Thursday evening.

"I'm very confident that (Friday), we'll have positive announcements, not just in skills and training, but in migration."

Mr Albanese says the main takeaway of the summit needs to be jobs security.

"More people are in insecure work than ever before. People are working two jobs just to get by, wages aren't keeping up with the cost of living," he told a post-summit dinner.

"People don't have the security you need from a permanent job or secure income in order to pay a mortgage or reliably plan a family.

"I want people to have security."

One of the achievements of the talks in the lead-up to the summit, and the meeting itself, has been getting a consensus around reducing reliance on temporary migration, the prime minister said.

"There are people here who've been on temporary visas for year after year after year and it keeps getting extended without giving them the certainty that enables them to buy a house and send their kids to school and to have that security," he said.

"We need to do better."

The sentiment was echoed by economist Ross Garnaut, who says skilled immigration is more likely to boost real wages.

"It's much more likely to raise rather than lower average real wages the more it's focused on the permanent migration of people with genuinely scarce and valuable skills that are bottlenecks to valuable Australian production, and which cannot be provided by training Australians," he said.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers ruled out bringing forward the government's signature childcare policy from mid-2023 to get women into the workforce sooner, after gender equality in the workforce was spotlighted on the first day.

"We wanted to make sure that one of the big focuses of this job summit was the untapped economic potential of Australian women who would work more and earn more if we made it easier for them to do that," he told the Ten's The Project.

"We would like to be able to fund some of these ideas earlier than we are but the reality is we can't afford to ... and so instead, it will begin in July as we originally intended."

Nationals Leader David Littleproud wants the government to be better at hearing the voices of rural and regional women, saying the summit had become more about union grandstanding.

"One of the most disappointing things I saw was the session on women and the disrespect this government showed to 30 per cent of the women in this country," he told AAP.

"There was not one woman from regional Australia on that panel, and the challenges that regional women face in terms of childcare and getting into the workforce are different to metropolitan areas.

"I respect the fact they had someone that had engaged with Indigenous communities, but 30 per cent of women live in regional Australia and their voice wasn't heard."

© AAP 2022