SIMON Black says former Brisbane Lions teammate Luke Power will want to prove a point when he returns to the Gabba on Sunday with Greater Western Sydney.

After playing 14 seasons and 282 games for the Lions, Power retired at the end of last season when coach Michael Voss failed to guarantee him a spot in the 2012 line-up.

Power, 32, was then lured out of retirement by fledgling GWS to take up a role as a playing assistant coach.

He has played six of their seven matches, including last Saturday's historic first win over Gold Coast.

Black and Power were almost inseparable mates after starting at the Lions together in 1998 and Black said he was still disappointed his friend wasn't by his side.

"I'm sure he wanted to finish his career here, but speaking to him he's rapt where he is, he's moved on, but who knows, in the back of his mind he might have something to prove.

"He's been one of my best mates in footy. You'd like to start together and finish together, but footy's not a perfect world and it hasn't worked out that way.

"It is what it is and you move on pretty quickly."

Black said the pair had already spoken this week and expected little sledging before and during the game.

He said Lions' fans would give Power a warm reception after his contribution to the hat-trick of premierships from 2001-2003.

"Lukey's been a fantastic servant of the club, and more than that he's been a great guy," Black said.

"You talk about building culture at a club and Luke's nature and Luke's way over 14 years at the Lions set a lot of that up - the way he went about it and influenced a lot of these young guys. That's probably been Luke's legacy since he's gone."

Although admitting it would be strange seeing Power in different colours, Black said that once the ball was bounced, he'd be just another opposition player.

He acknowledged that halting that'she Lions' three-game losing streak wouldn't be easy against the tenacious Giants.

"They're a group of young guys, but gees they play well and we've got to play very well to beat them," he said.

"We've played some good sides and haven't played the way we want to. We've been smashed early in the games, coming in at quarter time with a big deficit, and the intensity we've been playing at hasn't been good enough.

"When you have a bad few weeks, you try to fix this and that and you can chase your tail a bit, but this week we've gone back to being pretty simple with our messages, what we want to do as a group, and have a bit of fun."

Michael Whiting covers Brisbane Lions news for AFL.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @AFL_mikewhiting