TRIPLE premiership Brisbane Lions hero Nigel Lappin ended his 15-year playing career yesterday with the same minimum of fuss and quiet efficiency that he went about his football.

There was no speech: just a brief appearance with his coach Leigh Matthews where he answered questions deftly, in a way that matched the understated elegance of his suit.

Lappin played 279 games for the Lions after making his debut in 1994 for the then-Brisbane Bears. Although he accumulated individual honours like possessions — an All-Australian from 2001-04, club champion in 2004 — the brilliant onballer was always the fourth wheel in the Lions' "Fab Four" filled out by the more extroverted likes of Michael Voss, Jason Akermanis and Simon Black.

That midfield drove the Lions to triple premiership success between 2001 and 2003, with Lappin famously playing the last of them with cracked ribs, but he said yesterday the first one, against Essendon, remained the most cherished.

"We're coming up to the first 10-year reunion pretty bloody soon and that'll be something special," he said.

Lappin was durable and supremely fit, but from 2006, his body simply caved in, after he broke an ankle in the 2006 pre-season.

He added only four games to his tally this season before damaging an Achilles tendon that refused to heal. Since then, he has kept running and running, while his teammates trained. And running some more.

"It's probably over-trying that's probably cost me more than anything," he admitted. "That's always been me, really. You live and die by the sword."

Lappin fathered twin girls last September, making four daughters with wife Claire, and a family holiday is on the agenda.

"A lot of people don't understand how much pressure there is in this type of job, and mostly the pressure came from myself," he said.

"I wanted to be best-on-ground every week, and with that comes disappointment because obviously you can't be that player every week."

Matthews, who is fond of saying that reputation often trails performance, put a new spin on his own maxim by saying that Lappin was even better than his glittering record suggested.

"He's an even better player than his reputation," he said.

"He obviously wasn't a limelight-seeker; he was a low-profile player and sometimes high profile and ability get confused.

"Basically, the perfect player wins his own ball, uses it well when he's got time and space and works really hard to get it back off the opposition, and very few players have done that as well as Nigel. That makes him a really, really valuable package."

Off the field, Lappin's presence was equally valued. "Nigel's always had a great empathy for his teammates," Matthews said.

"He knows the game, he understands the game more than most players, so actually Nigel's potentially got a lot to offer."

The inference was that Lappin could coach, if he wanted to, even if he lacked the force of personality of his mentor.

Lappin himself is investigating his options, including buying a business in his native north-east Victoria.

"It's really hard to think of your future options until you actually close the door and that door's been pretty much closed today," he said.

And with that, ignoring the applause from his teammates, Lappin rose to his feet, walked out the door and was gone.