NEW BRISBANE Lions coach Michael Voss has moved to dispel theories of a lack of experience in his coaching box by appointing Wayne Brittain an assistant from 2009.

Brittain, who coached Carlton in 2001 and 2002, met Voss for breakfast on Saturday and said he needed little time to be convinced of re-entering the AFL scene.

“As soon as I felt that we were on the same page and I felt that the club was heading in a good direction, it was just a formality then, just to say yes,” Brittain told SEN on Monday morning.

“Once we’d spoken for about five minutes I said ‘look whatever I can do to help you I will, whether that be a full-time role or a part-time role’, it didn’t worry me.

“He’s just a good type of person.”

Brittain’s appointment as an assistant coach comes less than a week after Voss gave club stalwart Marcus Ashcroft (club football operations manager) and Paul Hudson (forwards coach) their marching orders.

Brittain, who has been based in Brisbane for some time, will primarily be working with the Lions’ engine room, and he acknowledged his vast experience may come in handy for the first-time coach.

“It’ll be looking after the midfield sort of first-up, which is busy enough now with all the rotations and that going on, so I’ll have my hands full,” he said.

“But I suppose it’s just to add a little bit of experience to the coaching panel.

“I’ve sort of been around for a little while, not just at the top level but I’ve coached for a long, long time.”

While some have questioned whether Voss – or any former player – could step straight into a senior coaching role with little experience, Brittain said the former Lions’ champion and Brownlow medalist's superb playing career would hold him in good stead.

“People always say ‘He hasn’t done an apprenticeship’ but as a captain, his last three to five years of his footy career he thought like a coach,” Brittain said.

“It’s the same as Nathan Buckley at Collingwood and Craig Bradley was like that under me at Carlton.

“They thought like a coach in the last four to five years of their career, so they were actually assistant coaches while they were still playing.

“So I think he’s done that part of his role anyway and I think he’s quite ready to step in and take the role".

Brittain did not dismiss the idea of trying to persuade recently-retired Lion Nigel Lappin out of retirement.

Voss recently made a call to his former teammate and flagged the idea of a comeback, and while the champion midfielder only managed four matches in 2008 after a serious achilles injury, Brittain said the door remained ajar for Lappin.

“That’d depend on him,” Brittain said.

“He’d have to want to play and his body would have to be able to get right.

“If those two things come together, you’d only be too happy to try to help get Nigel back out on the park and hopefully, if he did that, finish his career as a gun player that he’s been.”