Former AFL star Nathan Brown has revealed just how much his brilliant on-field performances for Richmond in the first half of the 2005 season means to him.
The silky-skilled Brown had transferred from the Western Bulldogs to Tigerland in a blaze of publicity during the 2003 period.
He was a valuable contributor in his debut season with the Tigers, averaging 23.4 disposals and kicking 26 goals from 20 games.
Brown, however, took his game to an unbelievably high level throughout the opening half of season 2005.
After nine rounds, Brown, in his role as a small forward rotating through the midfield, had booted 32 goals, averaged 20.2 disposals per match, and was being widely acknowledged as the competition’s best player.
Largely as a result of Brown’s dominance (plus Matthew Richardson’s fine form at full-forward), Richmond was sitting in second place on the ladder, with seven wins and two losses.
Sadly, it all came crashing down for Brown, and the Tigers, in a big Round 10 clash with Melbourne at Etihad Stadium.
Brown started the match in typically classy style, racking up 18 disposals and kicking two goals, before Demon opponent Matthew Whelan fell across his right leg, while he was having another shot for goal, and snapped it, in what was an horrific incident.
Surgeons subsequently compared the severity of Brown’s broken leg to that of a car-crash victim.
Suffice to say, he missed the rest of the 2005 season and, although he returned for the opening round of 2006, he was never the same player again.
Richmond ended up losing that Round 10, 2005 match against Melbourne by 57 points, and won just three more games for the season in Brown’s absence.
This week, Brown reflected fondly, and proudly, on his piping-hot form with the Tigers across the first couple of months of season 2005.
“That 10 weeks was my favourite time in footy, bar none,” Brown told veteran football journalist Mike Sheahan on Fox Footy’s ‘Open Mike’ program.
“It was the happiest I was, we were winning footy . . . I couldn’t have wished for anything more.
“When players say that they felt heavy in the legs, or they just felt a bit slow that day, for those 10 weeks I felt like I was running on top of the ground.
“There was nothing I couldn’t do in those 10 weeks . . . Every ball that came down I thought I was going to take it, every centre bounce I took I thought I’d get the ball.
“It was just one of those magical periods, where everything falls your way.
“That can happen for five or 10 minutes in a quarter, but it happened for 10 weeks.
“It was on the back of a massive pre-season, which was unusual for me.
“It was the fittest I’d ever been and, for that 10 weeks, I’ve never enjoyed football as much as I did.
“I’m happy that I had those 10 weeks because I didn’t win a premiership, or anything like that, but those 10 weeks I can look back and go, wow, that’s what AFL footy’s about.”
Nathan Brown’s flying start to the 2005 season
Round 1 v Geelong, MCG – three goals, 14 disposals.
Round 2 v Hawthorn, MCG – three goals, 23 disposals.
Round 3 v Western Bulldogs, Etihad Stadium – three goals, 20 disposals.
Round 4 v Fremantle, MCG – two goals, 34 disposals.
Round 5 v St Kilda, Etihad Stadium – two goals, 22 disposals.
Round 6 v Port Adelaide, Etihad Stadium – six goals, 16 disposals.
Round 7 v Carlton, MCG – four goals, 18 disposals.
Round 8 v Collingwood, MCG – five goals, 21 disposals.
Round 9 v Brisbane, Gabba – four goals, 16 disposals.
Round 10 v Melbourne, Etihad Stadium, two goals, 18 disposals.
