ON THE eve of Simon Black's 300th game, coach and long-time friend Michael Voss has waxed lyrical about his former teammate, saying he had an insatiable appetite to improve.
Voss played alongside Black for nine seasons from the moment the West Australian was drafted by the Brisbane Lions in 1998.
They have now been coach and player the past four seasons.
Along with Nigel Lappin and Jason Akermanis, the pair were two of the Lions' vaunted 'Fab Four' of the 2001-2003 premiership era and Voss could not heap enough praise on Black.
"He's been a true great of ours, there's no doubt about that," Voss said.
"A lot of these blokes (current Lions players) see Blacky as a 30, 31, 32-year-old and I've seen him as the 19, 20, 21-year-old who had an insatiable appetite to want to be the best and get the best out of himself.
"The work he used to do behind the scenes and how that has made him the player he is today. He's now the player who doesn't necessarily train more than anyone else, but through those formative years he was right up there as one of the best prepared players that you can possibly imagine."
The pair shared three premierships, won a Brownlow Medal each and a combined eight club best and fairests.
Voss said Black had comfortably slipped into a mentoring role as his career entered its back end.
"If I could think of attributes that you want our group to stand by, I could think of no greater attributes than Blacky's," he said.
"Not just on the field about being fierce and competitive, about wanting to be the best and hating losing, but also about how you're able to be humble off the field and be really grateful and listen.
"That's an incredible balance to be able to have in your footy and then go out and play like the ball is the only thing that matters in the world."
Voss said the Lions would need more than Black's milestone game to lift them above premiers Geelong at the Gabba on Saturday night.
He said you'd be "foolish" to underestimate Geelong despite their inconsistent start to the season.
"Geelong are a great side," Voss said.
"We're playing against a team that want to get their contested footy right, they've spoken about it all week. It's an area for us - if we're going to climb up the ladder - it's an area we need to be able to do over and over and over again."
Michael Whiting covers Brisbane Lions news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_mikewhiting
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL
