Black completes Lions’ Fab Four’s Fame
BRISBANE'S acclaimed ‘Fab Four’ has finally been reunited — in the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
Simon Black has joined Michael Voss, Jason Akermanis and Nigel Lappin, with his elevation completing the midfield core instrumental in helping the Lions win three successive flags from 2001-03.
Hall of Fame selectors chose Black last year, but at the time his competitive urge had driven him to take part in Australian Survivor.
When the Hall of Fame function took place last year, Black was in Fiji, deprived of food and sleep but fighting to stay in the game. Now, after pushing his induction back 12 months, he has dealt with a different induction due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It's a tremendous honour," Black, 41, said.
“As a kid growing up wanting to play AFL football, I never imagined I would play for as long as I did. To play as much footy as I did — and to have the success we had as a team — is incredibly humbling.”
Black excelled across 16 AFL seasons — 322 games and 171 goals — leaving the game somewhat reluctantly in late 2013, armed with myriad medals.
Try these on for size: three premiership medals (2001-03), a Brownlow Medal (2002), a Norm Smith Medal (2003), three best and fairests (two in premiership years of 2001 and 2002, and another in 2006).
Yet those stats and medals don’t adequately cover the artistry of watching Black’s role in one of the greatest midfield units of all time.
Voss was the natural-born leader. Akermanis was capable of doing anything at any time. Lappin was a relentless worker.
Black possessed all of those attributes.
A stylish left-footer who delivered the ball with tracer-like efficiency, he combined silky skills with a flint-hard edge that meant he could extract a Sherrin out of almost any predicament.
“I always felt it was like we were brothers playing in the backyard,” Black said of the Lions' Fab Four. “There was a selfless element in the way we played. It was just such a pleasure to play with them.”