The mane man
The Age
Saturday August 1, 2009
Jonathan Brown is enjoying life as Michael Voss' No. 1, writes Caroline Wilson. FOOTBALL'S favourite "man's man" Jonathan Brown returns to the MCG tonight, one step closer to his first finals series in five years when the Brisbane Lions and Brown, literally, went out swinging.It is true that the 27-year-old Lions captain could well have been lining up instead at centre half-forward for Collingwood. Not once but twice the Magpies have had a major crack at luring him back to Victoria, most recently last year when Brown and his club were at odds over the length of his new contract.It was also strongly mooted that Brown had had enough of Leigh Matthews although he has denied this, pointing out he had come to terms with the Lions before the premiership coach's unexpected retirement.Brown was tempted by the Pies' offer, a five-year deal that would have guaranteed him regular appearances on the big stage at one of the big AFL clubs. Carlton also made a serious play for Brown but in the end he signed a four-year deal with Brisbane to become a "Lion for life"."To be honest it was a consideration," Brown said. "You're probably trying to weigh up what you want to do for the rest of your life. It was more the lifestyle thing and where you wanted to be."You've got to weigh up offers, it only comes up every few years and I knew it would probably be the last time for me. Kyles [Kylie, who Brown married last October] and I had to think about where our future was."The financial side of it wasn't a huge factor, you ask any player it hardly ever is. In the end you weigh up the footy club and I decided this was where I wanted to be. It might have gone on for a long time but I wasn't going to jump to any conclusions. I had to be patient and make the decision properly."At the time, Michael Voss was a director of Velocity Sports, Brown's management company, but Brown says the pair €” despite their strong relationship €” never discussed his decision. "I really didn't confide in anyone but my wife and my old man," he said.The first decision Voss made upon replacing Matthews was reverting to a traditional on-field leadership structure. The Lions had five captains in 2007 and four in 2008 but the prevailing view was that Brown was the obvious choice to take on the job."He took me for a coffee and said: 'I'm offering you the captaincy'," recalled Brown. "I didn't have to go away and think about it too much. It gave me a bit of a funny feeling because I knew it meant my mates [Luke Power and Simon Black] were being demoted although they are certainly not demoted in my eyes."Brown is diplomatic when comparing Voss with Matthews but he doesn't hesitate when asked to name the most positive difference at the club."He's brought in a day off which we never had in the past," said Brown. "It's either Wednesday or Thursday and that's one of the biggest things that's helped us. Vossy's fresh out of the game and he understands the requirements on players, the mental side of it."While Voss' side clearly handles the ball significantly more than the Lions of old, Brown insisted both coaches pushed physical, direct games, adding that he was impressed with what Voss learnt during his two years away from club life."He certainly didn't just spend the last two years sitting in the commentary box," said Brown. "The way he's planned for this and communicated his plans and rolled it out and gradually just brought us along . . . I've been very impressed."Voss approaches his leadership group of Brown, Black, Power, Jed Adcock and Daniel Merrett at each quarter break to get feedback and put forward his views before he addresses the players. I'm the outside player of the leaders and I'm the guy outside directing traffic so it probably gives me a better idea of the bigger picture than the inside guys," said Brown.The Lions' club champion for the past two seasons, Brown agreed he had relished the on-field coaching role, just as he has enjoyed playing permanently at centre half-forward with licence to move as deep into goal as he chooses.Currently the AFL's highest goalkicker for 2009, he booted eight last week including his 400th career goal and attributes the hip surgery he had before his wedding last spring as significantly extending the length of his kicking. "I generally kick them from a long way out but last year my technique was out of whack and my range had shortened."I'm happiest where I am now and my body's feeling pretty good. I won't profess to have done it all but we spent a lot of the pre-season getting physically tougher. There was a lot of combative stuff, one-on-one physical work because we needed to put strategies in place to control games late in the last quarter. Last year we lost five or six games we should have won and we didn't hold our composure."A win over Collingwood tonight would place the Lions on 12 wins and a certain place in September and move them closer to a potential top-four spot. It seems that life has rarely been so good. The Browns are expecting their first child in late October, his playing hero is now his coach and his future as a Queenslander appears settled. And he is kicking goals."I was understanding that the club had to rebuild," Brown said, "but hopefully now we are coming into a window over the next few years. For me early on I thought you played in grand finals every year because that's what I did for my first four years. Every year we miss the itch gets stronger."JONATHAN BROWN ON:THE COLEMAN MEDAL"Of course I'd love to win it, of course I know where I'm at [on the goalkicking table]. It's like when players say they don't read the papers. Don't worry, they know when articles on them are in. I didn't know last week I was so close to 400 [career goals] though. I saw the countdown come up on the screen with three to go and I thought I might as well knock it over on the night."DANIEL RICH"I don't think Vossie could believe he got through to pick No. 7 [in last year's draft]. Dan Bradshaw and I are rubbing our hands together over his kicking, he's got a leg like a cannon but you can have guys who come in and can kick it over the top of packs like that . . . more remarkable is how good a tackler he is and how he can win his own footy. I think he's enjoying it up here because the pressure over there as a star kid was pretty intense. Mind you, he's building a bit of a cult following in Brisbane. As a captain he's very low maintenance."v PIES AT THE MCG"I love playing at the MCG. We've got three home-and-aways there this year which is the most I've ever had in my career. It's been a great rivalry between the two teams, we've played them in a couple of grand finals and there's been a fair amount of off-field banter between the clubs as well. We win this one and we know we're back playing finals so that's a fair incentive."
© 2009 The Age
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