FATIGUE was the reason why Simon Black was subbed out of his club record-breaking 319th game during the third quarter, according to Lion's coach Michael Voss.

Black had accumulated 13 disposals and was the leading clearance player on the ground when he pulled on the red vest late in the third term with the Lions trailing by 23 points.

"He was battling physically," Voss said in the post-match press conference.

"From my understanding, the message came up that he actually nearly called it himself."

"Obviously I'll have to follow up with Blacky about what that was.

"But the message came up the line that he was struggling a bit. So we'll have a look at that," he said.

It was only Black's fifth game of the year after missing the first six rounds due to a knee injury.

The 34-year-old played three games in the reserves before returning as the sub in round seven against West Coast.

The 2002 Brownlow medallist gathered 33 disposals in Brisbane's round 10 loss to Collingwood.

Black was tagged by Ryan Crowley all day but Voss denied that Fremantle's oppressive, hard-running, style was a factor in the veteran's fatigue.

"Not at all. Not Blacky. He covers the k's pretty well. No ideally it's a situation where he plays out the game.

"I'm not going to sub him out of the game in his 319th record breaking game am I?

"But he couldn't finish out the game so I've just got to go check on that."

Voss was pleased with his side's performance, but felt his young group wasn't able to grasp the opportunity when the game was up for grabs.

"I said to the group afterwards you can't have those moments without putting yourself there first," Voss said.

"I thought that for most part the general flow of the game was going pretty well for us."

"We weren’t able to hit the scoreboard often enough and obviously the pressure builds from there.

"It still came down to that last quarter, a couple of moments here or there, we just didn’t capitalize on it," he said.

Voss was pleased with the return of Daniel Rich who had 19 possessions in his first match since round four.

"He had a good impact," Voss said.

"He’s gone away and had a lengthy time out, and to be able to come back and have an immediate impact on the game is a credit to his preparation and detail.

"He is an important cog in our midfield.

"We played him across half-back, more so to introduce him back into the game, and as the weeks go we’ll put him back in the midfield where he belongs," he said.

Voss said stability and continuity was the key for the Lions in their development in the second half of the year.

"The biggest thing we want to be able to do is to create some stability in the side, position by position," Voss said.

"We haven’t had that for most of the season for one reason or the other.

"If we can get some of those and start to make some headway in that, it’ll hold us in good stead for the back-half of the season, certainly we’re looking for momentum."