Mr Simon Black

AFL Grand Final Day 2003 … in one of Queensland sport’s most memorable moments the Brisbane Lions completed an extraordinary premiership hat-trick with a crushing win over Collingwood. Front and centre with a career-best 39 possessions and winner of the Norm Smith Medal was Simon Black. He was positively majestic.

That, in a word, was the quietly-spoken midfielder who played a club record 322 games over 16 years with the Lions from 1998. As humble and unaffected as they come off the field but a fierce and brilliant competitor on it, he was a prolific midfielder with exquisite skills and endurance like few others. One of the all-time greats.

Born in Mt.Isa and raised in Perth, he was a triple premiership player whose standing in the game was best measured in the Brownlow Medal. He won the game’s highest individual honor in 2002, was runner-up in 2007-08, finished top six five times, and ranks 9th in all-time votes

He averaged 20 possessions a game for an unprecedented 14 years in a row from 2000, was All-Australian three times, won the Lions club championship three times, and finished top three in the club championship voting nine times. He was voted Lions Player of the Decade 2007-2016 and was joint club captain for two years.

In the Lions’ premiership era of 2001-02-03 he played every one of the club’s 76 games. He shared the club championship with the incomparable Michael Voss in 2001, won it outright from Voss in 2002, and was runner-up to Voss in 2003. The best of the best at their best.