Brown: Don't turn us into robots
Jon Pierik
Herald-Sun
23mar06
RICHMOND star Nathan Brown fears too many players are acting like robots and has called on them to add some verbal spice to season 2006.
Brown, who has carved a growing role in the media in recent years and regularly provides forthright views, says players must be allowed to express their personalities.
But he fears some officials get in the way.
"Football has become too sanitised and whether that is the AFL gagging players or players scared to speak out, I think you have to be honest and say what you think," he said.
"You have to have some sort of personality, otherwise people are going to start turning away from the game.
"It would be bad if everyone toed the line.
"The game is producing too many robots with the things they put in place before (players) get to the football club."
Players often walk a tightrope when it comes to publicly speaking their minds.
The AFL will fine a player or coach if it determines he has brought the game into disrepute – criticising umpires, for instance.
Some clubs want their players to say as little as possible at media conferences when talking about opponents, for fear comments could haunt the team on the field.
But Brown has rarely been afraid to speak up.
"If you bag a few people here and there, so be it," Brown told the latest edition of Alpha magazine. "If you say something, you back it up, and if it doesn't go your way you face the consequences and get on with life."
As he prepares for the Tigers' season opener against the Western Bulldogs tomorrow week, Brown has revealed he fears he may never recapture the superb form of last season before he snapped his leg against Melbourne in Round 10.
"I want to get back to that level; I want to be that player again . . . but I don't know," he said. "All I can do is every bit of work I can. It is something I have got no control over. It has been eating away at me; it makes me feel sick that maybe I will never be as good as I was, and eats away at me even more that I could have (gone on to be) even better than I was.
"I don't think I had fulfilled my potential as a footballer, and I was starting to do that in those first 10 games."
Brown has built his fitness and confidence through the pre-season and his silky skills appear intact.
Tigers coach Terry Wallace recently moved to take pressure of Brown, saying he did not expect the small forward to return this season to the dynamic form that produced 34 goals last year before he hurt himself.
"I think anyone who expects Nathan to be in the form he was in in the first nine rounds last year is kidding themselves," he said. "If he gets there at some stage this year, that's an absolute bonus."
Alpha magazine is available for $2 with your Herald Sun.
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