JONATHAN Brown will be the sole Brisbane Lions captain for 2009 after the club decided to move away from the multi-captain model of previous seasons.

Brown was co-captain with Simon Black, Luke Power and Nigel Lappin for the past couple of seasons.

"It's a great honour – I don't know how to put words to it," Brown said in Brisbane on Monday morning.

"I'm thrilled to be the captain – I've obviously been co-captain for the last couple of years and that's been a great honour.

"I'm the official figurehead now of the playing group, but my philosophy is to try to be the same the whole way through. Your actions are always going to be the thing that will make you a good captain.

"I've still got to prepare myself as hard as I do, and still play the game as hard as I possibly can, and that'll go a fair way towards making me the best captain I can be.

"So that's still my sole focus at the moment."

Voss – a triple-premiership captain of the club – said the choice between Brown, Black and Power was a tough one, as they all epitomised the club's values.

"It is like saying which one of your kids do you love the most? It's hard to pick," Voss said.

"I've been fortunate enough that I've played with all three of them [Black, Power and Brown, Lappin has since retired].

"And I think that there's a lot of qualities that Browny's universally admired for, and when you're looking at all those things, okay, well, who lives them the absolute best?

"And you're splitting hairs, really.

"But I think that for all the reasons that factor into it – not just on-field ability, but the face of our football club, who that's going to be ... so I couldn't give you a specific answer because it is a pretty large, encompassing role, I believe."