Browny's 200th this week / Brown gives Tigers hope

[one-eyed]

Brown gives Tigers hope
Garry Lyon | June 10, 2008 12:00am

THERE has not been much for Richmond fans to be excited about recently.

Two wooden spoons in the past four years and, despite early-season optimism, the Tigers have managed just three wins this year.

Mind you, Trent Cotchin may anaesthetise some of the pain from last year's dismal showing. The kid is a gilt-edged beauty.

At the other end of the age spectrum, there has been a quiet metamorphosis taking place that could sustain the Tiger faithful while they wait for elusive, enduring team success.

Nathan Brown has enjoyed his best six weeks since breaking his leg in the middle of 2005. It has been a long road back for the man who, at the time of his injury, was arguably the competition's most skilful.

His move from the Western Bulldogs to Punt Rd was always going to be controversial.

His reunion with coach Terry Wallace, who departed in somewhat acrimonious circumstances from Whitten Oval, was enough to rile the Doggies faithful.

Bulldogs fans thought Brown had deserted them; the Dogs had finished on the bottom of the ladder in 2003 and then had to endure their star heading to, of all clubs, Richmond, coached by the man who left them with a game to go in 2002.

But it didn't always promise to be this way.

The union between Wallace and Brown looked set for a "happily ever after" finish halfway through 2005. After nine rounds, the Tigers had won seven games and were third.

They had just beaten the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba for the first time in five years, had defeated premier Port Adelaide by 56 points and enjoyed successive wins against Carlton and Collingwood by a combined 120 points.

Life didn't get much better as a Tiger fan.

Leading the charge was Brown, who had kicked 34 goals that year, was in career-best form and, along with Matthew Richardson, who had 28 goals, looked certain to drive the Tigers deep into September.

The next week, Brown broke his leg; the Tigers lost 10 of their last 13 games, finished 12th and have not been nearly as imposing since.

Understandably, neither has Brown. He battled through 10 games in 2006 and 11 last year, and while there were flashes of brilliance, they were punctuated with long stints on the sideline.

For those who know Brown well, his frustration was obvious and enormous.

Playing with limitations and reduced to scrounging for kicks was like throwing a prince on the streets and making him beg for food.

Brown turned 30 in February. If his body and his previous couple of years weren't telling him it was time to turn it back on, then any birthday starting with a "3" certainly was.

While his career was not at the crossroads, his standing as an elite performer was.

The good news for Richmond fans, Wallace and, no doubt, Brown, is that the wheel has started to turn.

It hasn't come in large bags of goals, freakishly manufactured from the boundary or over his head.

He has enjoyed a stellar six weeks because of, one suspects, a greater fitness base, renewed faith in his body, a chance to push into the midfield, and a willingness to incorporate a more accountable, defensive side to his game.

He averages 24 disposals a game - greater than at any stage of his career. And while modern-game touches are not as hard to gather as they once were, it is significant that he has won more contested ball than he has since he broke his leg.

And while some clubs are prepared to concede uncontested possessions to opponents who tend to turn over the footy, Brown doesn't fit into that category.

Wallace has pushed Brown into the middle because he is the Tigers' best decision-maker and one of their best ball users.

His disposal efficiency is 75 per cent - compared with a career-high 86 - but the move is essential in light of 55 team clangers against Adelaide on Saturday.

Brown's defence has also improved. It is not too harsh to suggest he previously hadn't embraced tackling and chasing as essentials.

But 15 tackles in the past month, committed chasing and covering for teammates, and a willingness to encourage and support, rather than berate and brood, all indicate a change in mindset.

Often it takes the realisation that the end is near - and the possibility of an unfulfilled career - to push a player to a new level.

Brown has taken steps to ensure he doesn't leave the game with the reputation of a prodigious talent, struck down in his prime, unable to scale the heights that once appeared his destiny.

Hopefully he can inspire others in his team out of the realms of mediocrity. It is one thing to arrest an individual slide, but another to motivate others to join you.

He will have willing lieutenants in Cotchin, Nathan Foley, Brett Deledio and Will Thursfield, but can the rest of the Tigers jump on board?

It's not impossible.

The Bulldogs finished last in '03, passed the spoon to the Tigers the following year and are now a premiership chance.

Don't think that irony has been lost on anyone.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,23838468-19742,00.html

[one-eyed]

It's Browny's 200th game this week against Melbourne.

RFC games: 62
RFC goals: 111

Congrats Browny 

[Hellenic Tiger]

Aha a milestone game. Our record in these is not good at all.
Nevertheless well done Browny.

[Go Richo 12]

Aha a milestone game. Our record in these is not good at all.
Nevertheless well done Browny.

We flogged Port in Richo' s 200 th, omen? We need it D's went good against the Pies and if they had a forward, would 've won

[Hellenic Tiger]

Aha a milestone game. Our record in these is not good at all.
Nevertheless well done Browny.

We flogged Port in Richo' s 200 th, omen? We need it D's went good against the Pies and if they had a forward, would 've won

And Port flogged us in Richo's 250th last yr
Just like Essendon flogged us in Knights 200th.
For a while in the late 90's early 2000's we always seemed to be lining up in a clutch game that just happenned to have a milestone of a player/coach we were playing. Silvagni's 300th is the only one we seemed to win during that era. Then when it was one of our lads milestone we just couldn't rise to the occassion the way the opposition did when they had one of their boys celebrating.

[one-eyed]

Brown 'proud' over 200th game
richmondfc.com.au
7:14 PM Tue 10 June, 2008

RICHMOND forward Nathan Brown says the pride he takes in notching 200 AFL games is amplified by the struggles he faced to overcome his horrific leg injury.

Ahead of the milestone - against Melbourne at the Telstra Dome on Sunday - Brown said it was only now, three years after badly breaking his leg, that he was starting to regain his best form.

"I'm probably not 100 per cent to where I was back in 2005 but close to it," Brown said.

"I think every week I'm feeling more comfortable and running out games really well, I played in the midfield on the weekend, so that's a step back to where I was playing, forward and midfield, back in 2005."

After sustaining the injury against the Demons in mid-2005, Brown made a short-lived return at the start of 2006, but missed much of that season and the first half of 2007 because of ongoing repercussions.

"I'm fairly proud of the way I've come back and played football," Brown said.

"It's been frustrating for the last two years not being able to play the football that I wanted to.

"I'm more proud now that I'm playing good football again, playing consistent football, because 2006, 2007 I wasn't able to give the team what I felt I needed to.

"The defensive side of my game wasn't good and it's just now that I'm starting to get my game back that I'm actually proud of where I've come from and what I've achieved."

http://www.richmondfc.com.au/Season2007/News/NewsArticle/tabid/6301/Default.aspx?newsId=61187

[Tigermonk]

 Silvagni's 300th is the only one we seemed to win during that era. Then when it was one of our lads milestone we just couldn't rise to the occassion the way the opposition did when they had one of their boys celebrating.

& what a embarrassment to see our club lineup & clap off Silvagni's 300th
who gives a toss about another clubs player & his acheivements, we should show no respect to other clubs
we should be more professional against our arch rivals & concentrate on belting them

[mightytiges]

We won so I didn't care we lined up lol. I hope if Richo did make 300 that whoever we were playing line-up and pay tribute to the big fella.

Congrats to Browny on 200 . Geez I still remember feeling totally shattered the night he snapped his leg. Thought his career was over. 

[WilliamPowell]

Geez I still remember feeling totally shattered the night he snapped his leg. Thought his career was over. 

Our season certainly was 

[one-eyed]

Brown finds grey days are gone
Lyall Johnson | June 15, 2008

WHILE Nathan Brown will never think fondly of the night in 2005 he broke his leg at Telstra Dome, he still gets a laugh out of the irony of what took place the night before.

His skipper, Kane Johnson, had invited him to his apartment to listen to a CD he had just bought on the power of positive thinking, something, Johnson enthusiastically told Brown, would help them take charge of their lives, shape their future and play better football.

"We had to lie on the floor, put a mask on and this positive thinking CD talked about taking control of your life and destiny," Brown said last week.

"I felt a bit funny because we were meant to be seeing into our future or something and it was all a bit silly. And then the next day I broke my leg and it's taken me two-and-a-half years to get over it.

"So I often remind Kane of the great CD he put on the night before I broke my leg. Don't really think it did much good."

The football world reeled in horror that next night as Melbourne's Matthew Whelan threw himself across Brown's right leg and snapped the tibia in two — or rather, shattered it into 13 pieces.

No amount of positive thinking was going to stop that, nor help it heal physically, but it is fair to say Brown underestimated how important the mental side of recovering from the break would be for his football, and, just how long his mind would take to mend. As it turned out, every bit as long as his leg.

On the eve of his 200th game, Brown finds himself in some of the best form of his career, his possessions per game at an all-time high and his role in the Richmond midfield returning to somewhere near the dominance it had been before 2005 and his broken leg.

Much has been written about the two physical setbacks Brown overcame during his recovery — the first a "hot spot" above the break and then an issue that sidelined him for the first half of last season — yet Brown says a large chunk of his battle has been forcing his mind to overcome the fear of re-injuring his leg.

"The injury was a lot worse than what they originally told me. They never really told me that the bone was smashed into 13 pieces, I just thought the bone broke right through when it actually shattered everywhere. I didn't find out about that till about a year-and-a-half afterwards, they were too scared to tell me," he said.

"On top of that, I struggled for the first couple of years mentally, it was always holding me back," he said.

"I never pulled out of a contest, but I never put myself into the positions where I was going to have to make that choice. Mentally I still wasn't coping well with the injury

"You wait for the crumb a little bit more instead of going for the mark when you know you might get hurt. I'm not saying I am a hard player by any means, but I like to pride myself on being able to go when it's my turn to go.

"So it was pretty embarrassing and, I guess, hurting my reputation.

"And it's probably taken till this year with a full pre-season to get back there."

It's said that 90% of sport is played above the shoulders and for Brown there was no magic words of advice from a CD that did it for him, just a process of getting confidence back in his body as the leg got better and gradually becoming more assured he could engage fully in the physical contests.

Another important part of his recovery was the fact he had interests outside football, without which he may not have coped.

"If I wasn't doing anything and going to training each day then just going home and I was living and breathing footy I would have sizzled my head probably," he said

"Having things outside footy like my clothing business and the media meant I was still involved with football without playing. It gave me things to do outside football so I could take my mind off things."

But right now, Brown's mind is back on playing good football, even if he doesn't believe he is "impacting games the way I was back in 2005", and helping Richmond win more matches.

"My aim now that I'm fit and healthy is to have success and the measure of that is playing finals and further to that winning premierships," he said.

"I think the 200-game milestone will mean more to me when I've finished playing football. At the moment you play and it's good fun but I'm just looking at having success and enjoying my football. I haven't enjoyed my football for two-and-a-half years and it's meant to be the best time of your life."

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/brown-finds-grey-days-are-gone/2008/06/14/1213321695724.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

[mightytiges]

On ya Browny  . Topped his 200th off with a great goal from the boundary  . I always knew when he had the ball as the middle-aged woman 2 rows behind me would yell out "go sexy" 

[one-eyed]

NATHAN BROWN article – AFL Record Round 12, 2008

200 GAMES
Good times, bad times

Nathan Brown is again fit and ready to fire as he passes the 200-game milstone. But he has only one ambition left: to be part of a Richmond premiership. By Peter Ryan

Richmond's Nathan Brown has always possessed an X-factor.

He burst on to the AFL scene with the Western Bulldogs in 1997 as a precocious 19-year-old with long blond hair, a love of rock music and one of the most easy to-watch styles in football.

He loved to perform when the match was in the balance, turning games in his team's favour as regularly as birthdays occur in big families.

Terry Wallace has coached Brown in 156 of his 200 games (114 with the Bulldogs and 42 with Richmond). He says Brown is a "big game person who loves a big stage and a big finish". Only an opposition leader would disagree with that statement.

Brown combined skill with uncommon - yet sometimes unheralded -- courage and a natural flair.

The instinctive shimmy that has become his signature tune often ended in a goal that left opponents grasping at fresh air and staring at the devil mortals know as se1f-doubt.

 
His most obvious matchwinning effort came in round eight, 2005, when, playing his 28th game in a Richmond jumper, he kicked five goals in the final quarter on Collingwood's All-Australian defender James Clement.

That performance turned a 10-point three-quarter time deficit into a 35-point win for the Tigers.

When Clement was asked later what he learned during that quarter, he replied wryly that he learned Nathan Brown was a very good player.

The package, however, came with an independent streak. Early in his senior career, Brown was the classic boy who was often outside the principal's office.

Once a week during his first three years at the Bulldogs, Wallace would summon Brown to talk about some indiscretion or another - mostly game or training-related - that needed to be addressed. Brown didn't want to train much. He was a natural
and he could play better than most putting in less effort than many.

The coach-player relationship grew into trusted mentor and loyal player. Slowly but surely Brown listened to advice and matured. He realised that he could get better if he worked harder. The accolades followed.

Brown was All-Australian in 2001 and 2002. He had finished second in the 2000 best and fairest and kicked more than 50 goals in the season in both 2002 and 2003.

During one 10-game period from round 16, 2002, until round four, 2003, he kicked 49 goals in a series of brilliant performances that had supporters attending Bulldogs' games just to watch him play.

Then, at the end of 2003, he left Whitten Oval. He was stale and he needed a new challenge. He found it hard to tell his bulldogs teammates he had decided to join Richmond but he did.

He gained respect at the Tigers immediately, finishing third in the Jest and fairest in his first season at Punt Road.

His former coach and mentor Wallace arrived at Richmond in 2005 and the first nine rounds went as well as anyone with a passion for the yellow and black could have hoped.

Entering round 10, Richmond was second on the ladder. Brown had kicked 32 goals in nine weeks, with 19 coming in the previous four rounds.

His form was so good he had already earned enough votes to finish 10th in the club best and fairest even if he stopped playing after round 10.

Unfortunately for everyone, that is exactly what happened.

That fateful night against Melbourne, Brown broke his leg. His surgeon Hayden Morris has said since it was the worst sporting injury he'd seen. It was, says Richmond's rehabilitation coordinator Warren Kofoed, a 'Sliding Doors' moment for the club.

Everyone knew the loss was huge but few imagined its scale. Although it's impossible to quantify in a team game the value of one player, it is inescapable that Richmond has won just 20 of 67 games since.

But the initial concern was only for Brown. His busted limb was one of those images, like a car accident, you remember seeing it happen but you hadn't.

But few predicted the complications that would follow. Least of all Brown. "I thought, 'because it's just the one injury, this will be sweet. I'll get over this, it's a long-term injury and I'll do all the rehab and come back bigger and better and stronger than ever," he said.

He played 10 games in 2006 but as never more than 80 per cent right and still suffered serious pain. He could cope with that (although thousands couldn't). The uncertainty was harder to bear.

His worst moment came on the eve of the 2007 season when scans revealed a stress fracture centimetres above the original break. The club rallied, as did Brown's friends. His girlfriend Sally Prowd never lost confidence. She was just there with a lot of optimism and telling me I'd be right and I'd get back," he said. He needed the reassurance.

Brown admits he struggled. Probably one thing Sally gets frustrated with is that I don't communicate my emotions well. I guess I'm your typical male who likes to bottle everything up and release it at inappropriate times. She was on the end of that a couple of times," he said.

"Its very hard to talk about something that is slipping away from you that you have always been so good at and something that has always come so naturally. All of a sudden you can't do what you used to be able to do.

"You can't outrun opponents. You can't out jump opponents. You don't have the same confidence in your skill level, or your ball-getting ability or reading the play. Its a very lonely existence when you are doing rehab."

[one-eyed]

Brown was forced to face a footballers deepest fears head on, in his own time, in his own way. Could he come back? Would he ever be as good as he once was?

Kofoed, like many at the club, only saw Brown’s competitive spirit willing his body back.

He saw him on the treadmill or the ergo rower or cycling or swimming laps in the Tigers' pool, an activity Brown dislikes enormously (he once left a signed contract on Kofoed's desk requesting that he never be made to swim again).

He saw Brown access the physio or the chiropractor or undergo acupuncture, whatever it took to return. Kofoed saw a Brown few had seen before, with a mental and physical toughness that never wilted.

Kofoed was sometimes the butt of  Brown’s  'sense' of  humour as he looked for an excuse to keep his spirits high. Kofoed says Brown loved getting inside his head.

"I think that is the way he got himself up and going. He could see that I was frazzled and that would give him a bit of a lift," he said. "He’s a pretty likeable guy. He’s a guy personally I really wanted to see come back and succeed."

Brown returned against Melbourne in round 12, 2007. He has not missed a home and away game since. Coincidentally, he lines up for his 200th game against Melbourne at the same venue as the incident occurred. back in 2005.

Thankfully, the Brown of old is not far away In fact, it shows its head more often than not now. His possessions remain group one standard. The shimmy never left him. Nor did the lazy half smile.

 
His class was the difference in round one against Carlton. He was the Tigers' best last week against Adelaide, making the Crows' Nathan Bassett work overtime to quell his influence. When Bassett tried to make space, he would put his head down and commit to bridging the gap.

He can't turn games as regularly as he used to - a fact you can tell irritates - but he hasn't stopped believing he can in the near future. Nor should he. Brown says he’s about 97 or 98 per cent right.

"There are little things along the way where I've started running and jumping and taking marks again rather than always being on the ground when marking, just little things like that that I can only pick up in my own game," he said.

It is an aspect of his career now consigned to the dustbin of the past. "Look, I felt a bit cheated when it happened but if I get two years on the end of my career, and I'm still feeling pretty fresh, that would be good.

"Obviously being cut down at 27 playing the best football in my career … but I can't look back now. There is no use crying over spilt milk. I've just got to get on with it the best I can."

Perhaps it’s the perspective he’s publicly maintained while battling adversity that endeared him to football watchers. Or perhaps, and probably more likely, it’s his natural inclination to entertain.

"One thing I do love to take to a game is the knowledge that people
like to watch me play and I love to put on a show," he said. "As much you're trying to win, we're part of the entertainment industry too and we want to put on a good show"

Wallace says Brown has charisma, the sort of cheeky personality that can attract girls yet even put a smile on the face of hard-to-please 'footy first' blokes.

In person, he has a swagger but he is polite and articulate and way ahead of most young people in his knowledge of the industries that define today’s younger generation: sport, music, fashion, entertainment and travel.

He has both the magnetic appeal to bring people to the football as well as the intellect to keep people interested in his movements and opinions off the field.

At one stage in his career, we heard plenty of those opinions as Brown captured the zeitgeist with his declared love of old school guitar-based rock such as Led Zeppelin, Nirvana and AC/DC, street fashion and ‘credible' movies.

He delivered interviews he says now were about everything other than football. "When you're young, you say anything. You're having a good time and it's all beer and skittles," he said.

While he's still passionate about those parts of his life, his interviews these days tend to focus more on football. "I want to show people I love football and want to have a successful era at this football club."

Brown knows that has to happen soon for him to be involved in it. He is confident Richmond will come good in his time. He says it's hard to explain but he has been around football long enough to see the signs.

At 30 and about to play his 200th game, the extent of his ambition has narrowed to this: "I want to win a premiership so I'm going to try to hang on as long as I can to do that."

FASHION & FAME

Brown has always been interested in fashion. He remembers his mum Michelle once sending him to school in a home-made jumper with the brand name JAG ironed on to the front.

He spent part of the off-season in Los Angeles trawling through vintage stores looking for good pieces for his fledgling fashion label, Blackbyrd. "I love the old-school '70s T,” he said.

Brown does more than just lend his name and profile to the brand. He is involved in design, teaching himself by applying a can-do attitude, and drives the brand's ethos (he used to be into big bold prints but is now into more subtle prints.

He launched Blackbyrd in September 2007. Initially, it sold T-shirts online but is about to open a flagship store in Chapel Street, South Yarra, which will stock hoodies and jeans as well as T-shirts.

"He's that type of character. He'll never die wondering," Wallace said.