Brown banks on big future for Tigers
Steve Bulter | West Australian | 12th July 2008, 16:45 WST
There's something in the air at Richmond and veteran Nathan Brown wants to stay a part of it.
Brown, 30, wants a contract extension to his current deal which ties him to the club to the end of next year.
While stopping short of saying the club can win a premiership which has eluded him in 12 seasons in the AFL — the past five with the Tigers — Brown said he was desperate to finish his career with a finals flavour.
He has brushed off complications from his broken leg in 2005 to rekindle some of his best form recently ahead of Richmond's clash with West Coast tomorrow.
He said after playing finals in all of his first four seasons with the Western Bulldogs, his passion for the game had received a new boost by the development of younger players he believed would soon put the Tigers back in the finals mix.
Watching Brett Deledio, Nathan Foley and Trent Cotchin build a strong midfield chemistry had given him hope for a quick turnaround. And Mitch Morton, Jack Riewoldt and Cleve Hughes were building a potent spread of attacking options the club had lacked around Matthew Richardson for many years.
“I can certainly feel there's some-thing building at the club and it's something exciting,” Brown said.
“I walked into the Bulldogs when they were near on the bottom in '96 then out of nowhere we finished third and played finals the next year. So this is a bit different where I've felt a gradual build.
“My body's felt a lot better this year after a couple of years where I didn't know how it was going to turn out and I'm playing some good footy now. When you get to this point in your career all you want to do is have success and I'll do whatever the team needs for us to get it.
“I just want to play finals footy and feel good about winning and if I'm playing the sort of footy I am now next year, I'll go on. If these young kids start taking hold of the club and it's up and running, it will be great to stick around and try to be the wise old head to help them though.
“It's been a hell of a ride with some good times and some real dark times and it's looking too far ahead of ourselves to be talking premierships at the moment. But I think the good times are just around the corner again.”
“Once you get that little sniff that something might be happening, like it is with Richmond now, you start to get pretty excited.”
Brown emphatically stamped coach Terry Wallace as the man to take Richmond to their next premiership and also heaped praise on former West Coast forward Mitch Morton, who asked to be transferred to Richmond at the end of last year and will play his first game against his old team tomorrow.
“The match committee made Mitch Morton earn his spot and he's been very good for us — he takes a great mark, he's very composed with the footy and has good confidence in his own ability,” he said.
“He's been the standout young bloke down there, but we've been crying for someone to take that centre-half-forward spot that Richo's had for so many years and just at the moment Cleve and Jack look like they could possibly do that.
“They've still got a lot to learn, but let's hope they learn it very quickly. It's been for a few years now that me and Richo have had to kick the bulk of a winning score, but now the others are kicking a few and the more people we get on the scoreboard, the easier it is.”
Brown - who was a childhood friend of the retiring Michael Braun - has not won a game against West Coast in seven tries with Richmond, but strongly believed tomorrow would break the drought. The Tigers only win over the Eagles at Subiaco Oval was back in 2001.
“Obviously they've been a great team over the last four or five or six years and it's been hard to crack them,” Brown said.
“We've had a few close ones against them, but they've just been a bit good for us. With the Doggies I know we had some success against them early, but they beat us in a final in 1999 when we were the better team and I'm looking forward to getting the win against them this week.
“They haven't had the greatest year, but you still have to have massive respect for them with the amount of premiership players they have in their side.”
Brown is planning after football to further build his Blackbyrd fashion company, which will make its first retail product drop in Perth in October.
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