Jonathan Brown is set to play his 250th game. Picture: Marc Robertson Source: Marc Robertson / News Limited
LEIGH Matthews has described 250 game Lions warhorse Jonathan Brown as the most courageous player he has seen.
It is the ultimate compliment for the triple premiership star who was driven to put his battered body through another AFL season by the desire to "empty the tank completely" and help develop the next great Lions side and simply wants to be remembered for his loyalty to the club and as a player who "went to every contest as hard as was possible."
Owing to a series of severe facial injuries, and back, hip and knee problems as well as multiple suspensions, Brown has missed 80 of the 330 games the Lions have played since he made his debut in 2000.
At his best Brown was the most dominant and respected player in the competition and never before has a player combined such fierce attack on the footy with elite endurance.
Matthews has always said Wayne Carey was the greatest player he had seen and said although Brown was a true champion and one of the greats of his era, the horror injury toll the Lionhearted Brisbane centre-half-forward suffered in his prime meant we would never know just what he could have been.
But the man named Lethal for his brutal attack at the ball insists Brown's one legacy was beyond dispute, saying he had never seen an act of courage to rival the mark of the year in 2002, when Brown sprinted about 40m back towards goal with the flight of the ball and threw himself head first into oncoming traffic.
"The memory of Brownie will always be the absolute fearlessness, you could almost call it dumb courage, if he wants the footy he ignores all else that is on the field," he said.
"That mark, I don't think any of us have done that, Wayne Carey's trademark was leaping back with the flight into packs, but even he wasn't sprinting back 40m."
Brown was the young bull in the most brutal position in footy during the glory years when Lions went to four grand finals and won three flags in a row between 2001-03 and although he has often downplayed his contribution saying he was just a role player, Matthews has refuted that saying the premiership era would not have been achieved without him.
"The saying I believe in greatly is you can be a boy at 30 and a man at 20, he wasn't a spectator, he was a critical part of what we became," he said.
Brown simply says the injuries he copped were part of the job.
"It has been a hard road, it is a frustrating a little bit when I look back on that but I have always prided myself on playing a physical brand of footy and it was always going to come at a price," he said.
"My basic ethos is to get to as many contests as I possibly can, it has been from the start, and I guess you are going to be a bit of a battering ram when you operate on that principle."
Adding to the collision injuries, the most notable being the three complete facial rebuilds he endured between 2011 and 2012 was the fact wear and tear Brown suffered from being an elite runner who spent his early running with the midfielders and is famous for clocking a 15 plus score in the dreaded beep test — the realm of only the most elite endurance athletes.
To this day Matthews remains amazed at such running prowess from a man weighing 105kgs, and has suggested the club could have done more to save him from himself.
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