RESPECT will remain but Lions midfielder Simon Black is adamant friendships will change with premiership captain Michael Voss now the coach of the club.

Black acknowledged his relationship with Voss needed to harden as the latter delivered his first duties, and the same applied to the approach of a number of other senior teammates.

Voss addressed the Lions players and football department in two morning meetings at the Gabba on Wednesday, before the players started eight weeks of leave.

Some critics have suggested Voss, unveiled as Leigh Matthews' successor on Tuesday, may struggle to properly coach those he played alongside.

Voss has denied he would treat friends like Black and fellow co-captains Jonathan Brown and Luke Power differently to the lesser lights on his list.

Black backed that approach after leaving the 20-minute team meeting.

"We have to get out of that pretty quickly," he said. "You have to move on.

"At the end of the day it's a different relationship that you have to have with Michael now.

"But that's football. That's the caper we're in."

Small forward Ash McGrath expected Voss, 33 and just two years into his playing retirement, to pull no punches and tell it how it was, as he did with his 2009 expectations in the morning address.

"It's going to be fresh around the place next year around pre-season time and we have to stay tight as a group," McGrath said.

The next occasion Voss will be together with his players will be at the club's best and fairest dinner on October 4 when Matthews will be sworn in as a life member of the Brisbane Lions.