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Black not bamboozled by Big Bad Brendan

By Mr Dandalooa

Fevola who?

One thing can be said about Simon Black: he does not get roped in to the hype that surrounds Big Bad Baffling Boozing Brendan Fevola.

The level-headed midfielder Black seems to be over The Fevola Effect and will not fuel talk that Big Brendan will win the Brisbane Lions a premiership this year.

The Fevola Effect refers to the consequences clubs, and its players, experience from the wrath of off-field antics and misbehaviour that bring the game into disrepute.

With amateur photographer Fev joining forces with Jonathan Brown to form what could be a forward partnership to be reckoned with, confidence is abundance at Brisbane. But Black refuses to get swept by the hype.

Black conceded his club needed to improve in all areas and could not rely on the services of one player.

“Fev’s not going to win us a premiership, I can tell you that right now,” 30-year-old Black said.

“As the coach said, there’s a lot of parts of the ground and Fev is only one of 18.

“It doesn’t matter who you are, put the equivalent of Michael Jordan out there, it doesn’t work that way because the ground is too big and there’s 18 guys out there.

“It’s an old cliché but it’s one week at a time. We need to build the castle, and that starts this Saturday (against the Bulldogs).

“How good we could be, we don’t know.

“You can only win one game at a time, West Coast first up, we’re really looking forward to that and hopefully getting off to a good start.”

Black said the players were not thinking about September finals, and were aware they have stark improvements to make to match the top drawer teams.

But Voss believes his the Lions are a premiership contender and he is certain that Fevola will be a handful for opposition full-backs.

The difference with having Fev this year is that unlike at Carlton, Fev won’t have to kick goals on his own with Brown, arguably the AFL’s best centre half-forward, standing in front of him.