Browny's H-Sun interview & articles

[one-eyed]

Tigers dreaming of that one day in September
27 May 2005   
Herald Sun
Mark Robinson

Mark Robinson goes head-to-head with Richmond's Nathan Brown.

MR: So, Brownie, can you win the premiership?

NB: At the moment, I'm not sure. We've got ourselves in a good enough position to make the finals and that's where we have to get to. From there, anything can happen. We've got the big forwards in Simmonds, Richardson and Stafford to kick enough goals, and the ground-level players. And I think if we got in the finals, we'd give it a shake. But I'm not sure whether we can win the premiership.

You can't tell me you haven't thought about it.

Of course you do, you always think about that sort of stuff. Obviously it's dreaming kind of stuff, but every footballer would go to sleep at night and put his head on the pillow and think about how good it would be to win the premiership. And when you got the start of 7-2, I guess you start thinking about that.

You certainly didn't think about it last year.

Nuh. Not at all.

What's been the best moment this year, your most euphoric?

Probably the win against the Bulldogs is fairly high up for me. We had just been pumped by Geelong (in) Round 1; we got over Hawthorn who finished with us last year, and the Bulldogs was a game we had to win to establish where we were. And, obviously, I wanted to win because I used to play for them.

Your best game of the year?

Probably the Fremantle game when we beat them at the MCG.

Three of the AFL's top four goalkickers are relatively small blokes -- you, Mark Williams and Russell Robertson. Can we read into that that football has changed dramatically?

Footy's becoming a hell of a lot quicker and becoming more a game of keepings-off.

Which allows guys your size to get more of the ball.

It does. For guys with pace and a few smarts it allows you to know where to run. In the old days, where it was kick long to a 50-50 (contest), your job was to crumb it, where guys my size are now coming into play with their marking skills.

Is Danny Frawley a distant memory?

No, I speak to Danny fairly often. He rings me occasionally. I got along fantastically with Danny. You've got to remember Danny got the club to a preliminary final in 2001 and for whatever reason, whether it was he lost his own confidence, he lost players to retirement, the club made some poor management decisions, but things fell away and they fell away fairly quickly. I think Danny would be the first to admit he lost his confidence and he probably lost his way a bit.

Is it too easy to say Richmond has a better list, or is Terry Wallace a better coach, or is it both? The hard one there is "a better coach".

Terry is a genius at what he does, everyone can see that.

Genius? Big word.

The way he sets up games, the way he understands opposition clubs and players. He spent two years out of the game and he watched more football than anyone else, so he knows what players' strengths are, what their weaknesses are, and tries to play our strengths to their weaknesses. I obviously think he's a better coach because I've had him for eight years of my career, I only had Danny for one and we finished on the bottom. I don't think there's any disrespect to Danny to say that Terry is a better coach. (In) saying that, Danny got the club to a preliminary final and I respect him massively.

Genius? You rate him very high, don't you?

Well, look at him at the Bulldogs. He got them from 15th to third and played finals for five years when he was there. He didn't quite get to the top and then things fell away a bit. He spent two years in the media, and to take a club from 16th like Richmond was last year, and to have them third and 7-2, beating last year's grand finalists and premiers, it's a fair effort and something you've got to give (him) credit for.

Is it a myth that players drink alcohol?

Players enjoy a beer like everyone else, but there's times when you've got to pull your head in and say, 'Look I'm not going to have a drink', we've got a short break. You can have a couple of beers after a game, but that's what football is coming to, just a couple of beers after a game.

No blowouts to 5am, 6am?

Not at this stage of the year. I think at the end of the year in the off-season, that's well and good. In season, I think most players pretty much toe the line and that's what we expect at Richmond.

Is it a myth that players take drugs?

I'd be naive to say that, with all the talk about it, players haven't tried it. I'm sure some have, but at the end of the day there's been no 100 per cent guarantees that players have done it. It's all rumour and innuendo. And until something happens, then people can't say players take drugs.

Why is everyone saying -- The Footy Show last Thursday -- that players must be taking drugs? Must. It seems to be common knowledge without any acknowledgment by the players.

I don't know why. People look for a problem and obviously drugs are a problem in society, in people 18-30, so therefore people might think there's a problem in AFL.

You said recently a wrong impression exists of AFL players.

I think so. If you weren't from Australia and you came here and read the papers, you'd think all AFL players do is take drugs, go out, get in fights and harass women, and it's totally wrong. Ninety-nine per cent of AFL players are that professional that they would never think about doing something like that. You wouldn't be able to survive if you were taking drugs in our environment and you wouldn't be able to perform at the level the football club wants you to.

Were you always this wise when it comes to drugs and alcohol?

A couple of times in my younger years I had a couple of incidents with alcohol, when, obviously, I head-butted a bouncer at KFC up in Brisbane. Ever since then, I've been rock solid.

Is there more stigma for an AFL player to be caught with marijuana or ecstasy than for a regular person? Is the penalty too great for AFL players?

Two players in how many years have tested positive to recreational drugs and that taints the rest of the AFL. Two idiots made a mistake and were stupid enough to go to training after they made that mistake, and then still lie, and then one still wants his 15 seconds of fame a year later. You can't give that sort of guy 15 seconds of fame or any credibility.

We're here at a cafe, if Laurence Angwin walked up, what would say to him?

I wouldn't say anything to him.

How's your mate Rooey (Riewoldt) going at the moment?

He's fine. He's 21 (22), he's still the best player in the comp I think, and he'll bounce back. Two bad games never hurt anybody.

You still speak often?

He rang yesterday, actually. We talked about footy, I asked him what's going on with St Kilda. We have a friendship which is, I guess, strange because we're at different clubs and we've met since we started playing football. But it's more like we don't play football, we're mates away from football.

Richo called you the most confident player he's come across.

(Sniggers) That's a bit rich, isn't it?

You exude confidence, don't you?

That's part of my game, having confidence in my game, it's part of my personality, I guess.

Are you arrogant?

I wouldn't say I'm, well, I guess I'm occasionally arrogant, but you need confidence, you need some sort of arrogance in your life and at times you need to be quite humble as well.

When has that confidence taken a massive dent?

Last year was the worst year in my life. You leave a football club which is on the bottom and leave in sort of controversial circumstances and you go to a club that finishes on the bottom, it just tore away at me all year.

Words such as Judas, went for the money, selfish, were bandied about. How did you deal with all that?

I guess I knew that was always going to happen. Anyone who leaves a club is going to get bagged, but all I wanted to do was win football and the rest of the stuff would go away. And we weren't winning football. In sport everyone wants to be associated with the guys that are going well, the guys at the top, no one wants to know the guys who are on the bottom, the guys who are struggling. The only people who want to know them are their friends and family.

Feel the forgotten man last year?

Probably a bit forgotten, but I probably made a rod for my own back, by leaving a football club to go to another which was struggling and people said serve yourself right for leaving. But this year things are different. (In) Saying that, I love that the Bulldogs are going well, too. I've still got some great mates there. I want Murph, Westy and Johnno and Darc to do well and have success.

How would you go on Big Brother?

I wouldn't go that well. I would be quiet in there, but I'd take everyone down behind their back, so I'd get found out as the fraud I am, and I'd be out. It's a good concept, but I'd have problems with personality clashes because there seems to be a hell of a lot of wankers.

Twelve months on, do you feel you're a Tiger now?

This year I've tried to concentrate on football a lot more rather than outside things because I guess I had to prove to Richmond people why Richmond got me across. I didn't feel they accepted me last year, but now feel I'm getting that acceptance and that's one of the greatest feelings that I've had this year. I love the club, I love the jumper, I've read into the history, and I really feel part of it now. The fans have been fantastic. I actually heard them last week singing the Dr Who song but they were singing Dr Pink, and that made me chuckle.

Must be amazing the difference between last year and this year.

People coming up to you in the street saying, 'I'm so proud of you blokes'. It gives you a buzz.

You hide last year?

After the real bad losses I did.

Now?

I love it. Love being up the top end of the ladder, love winning. Winning's everything. People say it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game. That's a load of poo. It's all about winning."

BROWN ON:

MR: Brett Deledio.

NB: He's going to be an extraordinary player. Same vein as Lappin, Nigel.

Kane Pettifer?

Developing into a very good player.

Still annoyed he didn't handball to you against Port?

Nuh (laughing).

You wouldn't have.

Yeah. I gave Richo one over the top earlier in the year.

Wayne Campbell? Is he liking the bench?

He doesn't really like the bench that much, but he is 100 per cent Richmond. He is everything that Richmond is. He's given his last 14 years to Richmond without much success and you'd like to see a guy like that go out with some finals success this year. He is one of the most liked blokes at the club.

Struggle with the new role?

It was the first time he's had some insecurities about his football, I think, during the pre-season, and he didn't know if that role was for him, but he's taken it on extraordinarily well.

Mark Coughlan?

He is a rare individual, Mark. One of the strangest, yet most intelligent people I've met.

Why strange?

He does strange things. Six of us will be having lunch and Mark will be sitting there, all of a sudden he'll get up, grab his keys and leave without saying goodbye. Strange like that. But he's going to be like a Michael Voss.

If you were leading who would you want to have the ball? Johnson, Coughlan, Campbell?

Campbell. Great kick. Makes the right decisions.

Troy Simmonds?

Another dimension to our forward line. Allows Matthew to get one-on-one, allows Stafford to get one-on-one, and he's one of the quickest blokes over 100m at the club.

Matthew Richardson?

He's an amazing person, gives himself more than anyone at the club to supporters and coterie groups. On the field, he is a juggernaut. I seem to work well with him and he's a superstar.

You get upset when he takes a lot of stick?

I don't get upset, I think he might. But I just enjoy the movie of life which is Matthew Richardson. He's a terrific guy.

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,15414968%255E19771,00.html

[one-eyed]

Brown plays in a fashion all his own
Malcolm Conn
The Australian
May 27, 2005

NATHAN BROWN, the silky Richmond small forward now widely regarded as one of the game's most valuable players, was once considered so conceited and different by some of his team-mates that they wanted little to do with him.

Tony Liberatore, the 1990 Brownlow medallist and resident enforcer at Whitten Oval, couldn't believe what he saw when Brown arrived from Bendigo as the Western Bulldogs' first draft choice to start the 1997 season.

"He was a pretty arrogant young fella, a bit of an upstart," a typically straightforward Liberatore told The Australian this week.

"We had to pull his head in pretty quickly. He was very confident. He was right out there. I probably couldn't cop him early because there is a lot of hard work involved in footy and I think he felt it was just all going to happen for him."

Indeed, Liberatore remembers Brown turning up to his first weight session with long hair and wearing jeans, although Brown insists he was still waiting to be allocated training gear.

Coach Terry Wallace, now reunited with Brown at Richmond, laughs about the teenage rebel who was the first player he chose during his tenure with the Bulldogs.

"When he first came down he had a fringe and hair down below the shoulders," Wallace said. "He looked more like a girl than a boy with his young face, the long hair and a skinny, little body."

However, Wallace regarded Brown as one of the most talented young players he had seen, who was brave beyond his diminutive stature.

It was only the reputation as a wild child that Wallace believes left Brown still available to the Bulldogs at No.10 in the draft.

"A few (clubs) had shied away from him because of that temperament," Wallace said. "There were a few things in his life and his schooling and his tennis. He was a very good tennis player and had a few hiccups along the line with his tennis. There were a few who thought that might have been a reason not to pick him up.

"I just thought his talent was too strong and that's what a coach's role is, to bevel off the edges and get the finished product."

Wallace can understand the reaction some of his players had on Brown's arrival. "You'd send the boys for a run and you'd have to send somebody out to look for him when all the others were back. He just could not run to save himself," Wallace said. "So the guys saw that he wasn't as professional as he could have presented himself in the early days."

Liberatore became firm friends with Brown following long chats on an end-of-season trip and now has great admiration for what he has achieved. It's impossible not to.

Second on the goalkicking list this season with 32 majors and being touted as an early Brownlow fancy, he is believed to be among the 20 best-paid players in the league, earning more than $500,000 a year.

It was his highly publicised and sometimes criticised move from the Bulldogs to the Tigers at the beginning of last season which pushed Brown into the upper echelon of payments. But he says other clubs offered him more than Richmond.

Always confident and candid, Brown has never shied away from the belief that the Bulldogs could not pay what he was worth. He chose Richmond because of the ease of trade deals and a belief that the Tigers were a team which would improve. Instead, Brown became an unfortunate part of history by being part of successive wooden spoons with two different clubs.

"I was a shattered person," Brown said this week. "I wasn't myself for a while. I hated football for a year."

He has always liked and respected Wallace as an understanding mentor, but no one can quite believe the miracle Wallace has performed by lifting Richmond to third on the ladder.

"Without him my football probably went backwards a tiny bit and since he's been back I think my football has gone up a notch," Brown said of Wallace. "He knows how I tick, what sort of footballer I am, where he can get the best out of me.

"I've got a lot of admiration for him. I think he's a fantastic coach."

The feeling is mutual, because Wallace sees something of himself in Brown; they've dared to be different.

"That's something I've always been. That opens you up for criticism and ridicule sometimes," Wallace said. "I really do like people who are brave enough not to absolutely, completely and utterly conform to everything that life brings on to them. He's great. He's a different person, he's his own person."

From playing Dr Pink, a gay doctor, on The Footy Show, to outspoken comments about his use of caffeine tablets and a regular show on radio, Brown has never been afraid to speak his mind.

His meticulous grooming and cutting-edge fashion sense have left him open to light-hearted jibes from team-mates.

Brown says that his partner, Sally, introduced him to the need for moisturiser and eye cream, but he has always had a great appreciation of fashion, which has already become his path post-football.

Following a New York holiday, when he and former Bulldogs team-mate Craig Ellis each went on a $20,000 spending spree, the pair decided it might be cheaper to make the clothes they liked.

That was the genesis of the Lenny fashion label produced by the pair, which has grown from simply T-shirts to a range stocked by 40 stores throughout the country.

For now, football remains central and Brown admits he has his father to thank for the final goal kicked on Saturday night which sunk the Lions by four points.

Most talented left-footers rely so heavily on their natural side that they become one-sided, but Brown recalls that as a youngster in the backyard, his father would never allow him to kick left-footed twice.

"He always used to say to me 'if you want to play AFL you've got to kick both sides of your body'," Brown said. "That's something I still do today."

While much has changed with Brown on and off the field, Wallace sees the same special ability shining through.

"Great players in any sport seem to be doing things in slow motion compared to others," Wallace said. "They make it look easy."

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,15417230%255E2722,00.html

[JohnF]

Mark Coughlan?

He is a rare individual, Mark. One of the strangest, yet most intelligent people I've met.

Why strange?

He does strange things. Six of us will be having lunch and Mark will be sitting there, all of a sudden he'll get up, grab his keys and leave without saying goodbye. Strange like that. But he's going to be like a Michael Voss.

 

Knew a bloke like that myself. An absolute headcase. Very intelligent though. lmfaoo@ Eccentrics.

If you were leading who would you want to have the ball? Johnson, Coughlan, Campbell?

Campbell. Great kick. Makes the right decisions.

 

Matthew Richardson has said the same thing.

I hope the Campbell baggers who think he just does little chip kicks to contests read this.

Ahh, sorry, they're all on Bigfooty and PRE 

[mightytiges]

I hope the Campbell baggers who think he just does little chip kicks to contests read this.

Stan Alves 

Browny doesn't hold back in the media on what he thinks or knows.