BRISBANE Lions captain Jed Adcock still talks to Michael Voss about his footy, and the former coach remains good mates with a number of players.
Voss returned to the club last week for the first time since being sacked last August, to accept his induction to Legend status at the club's Hall of Fame night.
The three-time premiership captain spoke openly about what the club meant to him and how his latest honour was the highest individual accolade he had received.
Adcock said he was delighted to see Voss back in the fold after what had obviously been a difficult initial period for him following the sacking.
"It was good for him to come back to the footy club after what happened last year, and he left it behind and put the bigger picture ahead," Adcock said.
Voss was Adcock's first captain in the AFL, and the current Lions leader said he still called upon his former mentor at times.
"I chat to him every now and then, I'll give him a call," Adcock said.
"I worked pretty closely with him the last few years as a leader of this footy club.
"We've got a good relationship and we'll continue to have that. We'll talk when we need to talk and talk footy when we need to talk footy.
"I think early it was important for him to let 'Leppa' be the coach and let him take this footy club in the way he needed to, and Vossy definitely took a step back for a while, but he'll remain good mates to a lot of us."
Adcock implored the current group of young players to learn lessons from Voss and Hall of Fame inductees Darryl White, Chris Johnson, Chris Scott and Shaun Hart.
All five spoke last week about the hard times they faced early in Brisbane, before going on to play in multiple premierships many years later.
"A lot of them got to the club and played in three wooden spoons in four years," he said.
"Hopefully they can see staying the course and sticking in there and seeing it to the end, the opportunities you've got."
The Lions play Carlton at the Gabba on Saturday and should field a vastly different team to the one that was thumped by North Melbourne before the weekend's bye.
Tom Rockliff and Joel Patfull (illness) and Sam Mayes (concussion) will be among those to return.
Twitter: @AFL_mikewhiting https://twitter.com/AFL_mikewhiting
