Michael Voss will get the opportunity to emulate the deeds of his mentor, and now predecessor, Leigh Matthews, as a premiership captain and coach after being confirmed as Brisbane's new coach on Tuesday, just 24 hours after Matthews stepped down.

While the speed of the appointment was a surprise, the announcement of Voss as the man to lead the Lions into their next era was not, with the three-time premiership captain the frontrunner to replace Matthews for a long period.

Even when Voss took up an assistant's role at West Coast, rather than a head position with the new Gold Coast franchise, the door was always open for Brisbane's favourite son to return if Matthews decided not to see out the final year of his contract.

And he has now exercised that option, signing on for a three-year deal with the Lions which will take him into a new era in Queensland football with the Gold Coast franchise set to enter the competition in 2011.

Voss played 289 games for the Bears and then the Lions and won the Brownlow Medal in 1996. He was the leader of the club during an extraordinary era in the early 2000s where Brisbane won three-straight premierships.

The comparisons in the playing careers don't end there. Both Voss and Matthews wore No.3 for much of their careers and both are ranked among the greats of the game.

Intriguingly enough, the last time Matthews was replaced as a coach was also by a premiership captain in Tony Shaw. However, Shaw's reign lasted four unfulfilling years before he was replaced by Mick Malthouse after Collingwood won the wooden spoon in 1999.

Now as a coach, Voss will attempt to match Matthews, who won four premierships as a player at Hawthorn and another four as a coach, one at Collingwood and three at Brisbane.