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| Jonathan Brown | |||
|---|---|---|---|
.jpg) Brown in September 2012 | |||
| Personal information | |||
| Nicknames | Brown, Browny, Jon, Jono, JB | ||
| Born | (1981-10-29)29 October 1981 (age 44) Port Fairy,Victoria, Australia | ||
| Original team | Geelong Falcons (TAC Cup) | ||
| Draft | #30 (F/S),1999 National Draft,Brisbane Lions | ||
| Height | 195 cm (6 ft 5 in) | ||
| Weight | 103 kg (227 lb) | ||
| Position | Centre half-forward | ||
| Playing career1 | |||
| Years | Club | Games (Goals) | |
| 2000–2014 | Brisbane Lions | 256 (594) | |
| Representative team honours | |||
| Years | Team | Games (Goals) | |
| 2008 | Victoria | 1 (3) | |
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2014. 2 Representative statistics correct as of 2008. | |||
| Career highlights | |||
| |||
| Sources:AFL Tables,AustralianFootball.com | |||
Jonathan Brown (born 29 October 1981) is a formerAustralian rules footballer. He played 15 seasons for theBrisbane Lions in theAustralian Football League, where he served as captain between 2007 and 2013, and won threeAFL premierships between 2001 and 2003. He is also a three-time clubBest and Fairest winner, two-timeAll Australian (2007 and2009), and a one-timeColeman Medallist.[1][2]
Brown was born inPort Fairy, inVictoria's south west, to mother Mary[3] and fatherBrian (a formerFitzroy andEssendon player). He is the eldest of three brothers.[3]
Brown grew up on his family's property and attended school atEmmanuel College Warrnambool.[4] He grew up a Fitzroy fan and began playing Australian rules at an early age, playing school football and cricket with the Emmanuel College Hawks.[5] Brown began playing senior football with theSouth Warrnambool Football Club at the age of 15. He began senior cricket at about the same time and was a stand-out left-arm fast bowler. He played A-Grade cricket with Wesley CBC where he was Cricketer of the Year two years in a row and played in a senior premiership. He was also invited to play in the Victorian under-17 squad. However, he focused on Australian rules, pursuing a dream of followingTed Whitten to represent Victoria inState of Origin.[6] Brown drew the attention of AFL recruiters while playing under-18 representative football for theGeelong Falcons in 1999 at the national carnival inBrisbane when he was named as an All-Australian.
Brown was selected by theBrisbane Lions in the1999 AFL draft under thefather–son rule. His father considered Brisbane a good option whenLeigh Matthews became the senior coach, despiteHawthorn showing interest in recruiting him. Upon moving to Brisbane, he was immediately groomed as the club's nextcentre half-forward. The next year, in Round 5, he played his first senior game for the Lions as an 18-year-old against theAdelaide Crows. His best game in his opening year came againstFremantle in the final round of the season when he had 23 disposals and scored two goals.
Playing in a team which included threeBrownlow Medalists (Michael Voss,Jason Akermanis andSimon Black), Brown participated in four consecutiveAFL Grand Finals and was a part of three consecutive premierships in2001,2002 and2003.
Touted as the nextWayne Carey early in his career, Brown was an unspectacular but consistent contributor during his first few seasons and, at 195 cm and 105 kg, was an imposing target across half-forward. In Round 6 of 2001, Brown kicked seven goals and amassed nine marks and 19 disposals in his first dominant performance in front of goals. For the season, he averaged six marks, 14 disposals and 1.5 goals per game. His season tally of 157 marks was a team-high, and his total of 38 goals was third-best of Brisbane players.
Brown was well renowned for his bravery, often putting himself in reckless situations that put the mission of the team before his own physical well-being. An example of this was when he took the 2002Mark of the Year by running with the flight of the ball and launching into the oncoming Hawthorn playerJade Rawlings. In an interview withMike Sheehan forOpen Mike, Brown acknowledged he was running towards the pack blindly (i.e. with his eyes only on the ball, not the players converging on the pack) and committed fully to the attempt.[7] Such efforts earned him numerous titles for courage during his career, including threeRobert Rose Awards for being voted the most courageous player of the league in 2007, 2008 and 2011. Such acts of courage caused recurring injuries, especially during the past few years of his career, including four facial injuries between 2011 and 2014.
Plagued by injury and regular meetings with theAFL Tribunal during the next three seasons, Brown's development was hampered until2004, when he had the best season of his career to that point, averaging an impressive eight marks, 16 disposals, and 2.3 goals per game. Despite missing eight games through injury and suspension, Brown kicked a career-high 39 goals and again led the Lions in marks, with 140. His progress was punctuated in the Qualifying Final againstSt Kilda when he achieved a best-afield six-goal performance. The season, however, ended on a sour note for Brown, as he was reported for strikingPort Adelaide'sJosh Carr during the Lions40-point Grand Final loss. The report saw Brown suspended for the first five games of the2005 season.
In 2005, Brown was promoted to the Lions' leadership group. He made his return from suspension in Round 6 of 2005 againstEssendon and immediately had a significant impact, taking 14 marks and kicking eight goals on then-Essendon defender and futureSydney Swans premiership playerTed Richards, in what was arguably the best game of his career to that point.[8] Richards was dropped from the Essendon team as a result.[9] The following week, Brown kicked another five goals, and in Round 10 against theKangaroos Brown had 12 marks, 27 disposals and five goals, followed by a career-high 29 disposals in round 11. Injury again cut his season short, but 2005 was clearly Brown's best individual season as he averaged eight marks, 18 disposals and 2.8 goals per game during the 12 games he played prior to Round 17, before a severe bout of osteitis pubis prevented him from having any influence in his last two games.
In May 2005, Brown was targeted by Collingwood in a deal reportedly worth $6 million over the next four seasons, but he was quick to announce that he had no plans to leave Brisbane. Two months later he officially signed a contract committing himself to the Brisbane Lions until the end of the 2008 season in a deal reportedly worth $2 million over three years.
2006 was the year in which Brown first stamped his authority on the AFL competition. Midway through the season, Brown seemed certain to claim almost every individual award on offer at the end of the year, as he dominated in the air and in front of goals on a weekly basis. Brown's form hit a peak between rounds 7 and 10, when over four games he averaged 11 marks, 20 disposals and 6.5 goals per game, including performances of seven or more goals in three successive games. Injury, however, ended his season prematurely yet again, as Brown played his last game of the season in Round 10. In the2006 Brownlow Medal count, Brown polled 13 votes, enough to secure a top 10 finish despite only playing 10 games out of a possible 22. He was leading the count easily before he suffered the injury.
Following the retirement of long-timecaptainMichael Voss in 2006, Brown was strongly favoured to replace Voss as captain. Nevertheless, when the captaincy was announced on 20 March 2007, Brown was named as co-captain alongsideSimon Black,Chris Johnson,Nigel Lappin, andLuke Power.[10] Brown had previously acted as co-captain for the Lions in the2007 NAB Cup Grand Final, alongside Black, Johnson, and Power, with Lappin out injured. Desperate for an injury-free season, 2007 delivered just that for Brown, and what resulted was the best season of his career. He averaged nine marks and 16 disposals per game, and kicked 77 goals at 3.5 per game in 2007. In round 16 againstCarlton, he became the first Brisbane player to kick 10 goals in a game, and he finished the year with seven goals againstGeelong to secure theColeman Medal as the season's leading goal kicker. That year Brown took the most contested marks in the competition to go with his first Coleman. He also won his firstMerrett–Murray Medal (the Lions best and fairest), theAFL Players Association Best Captain Award, the Robert Rose Award for Most Courageous Player, was runner-up in theLeigh Matthews Trophy as League MVP and was named vice-captain of the All Australian team. At season's end, Brown was regarded by many, including AFL guruMike Sheahan, as the number-one player in the competition.[11]
Brown started the 2008 season slowly compared to his 2007 form, and was rested for one game in round seven due to minor injury concerns. He then returned to his best with three consecutive six-goal performances and combined withDaniel Bradshaw to be one of the most formidable forward duos in the league in the second half of the season. In the 15 games after his week off, Brown averaged nine marks, 16 disposals and 3.7 goals per game, although his season stats were inferior to the previous year. Brown captainedVictoria in theAFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match against theDream Team, and aspectacular mark taken overMatthew Richardson in that game is captured in Jamie Cooper's paintingThe Game That Made Australia, commissioned by the AFL in 2008 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the sport.[12] He was named the AFLPA Most courageous player at the end of the 2008 season by his peers for the second consecutive year in a row, but missed out on a second All-Australian selection. Brown's 2008 season was capped off by winning his second Merrett–Murray Medal.
At the completion of Round 22 of the 2008 season, Brown announced he had signed a four-year contract that would see him remain a Lion until he is at least 31.[13] On 27 October 2008, Lions coachMichael Voss announced Brown's appointment as sole captain of the club.
2009 was Brown's most consistent year to date, being kept goalless just once and kicking two or more goals in a club record 17 consecutive games. In round 6, Brown had 13 marks, 24 disposals and five goals against Essendon, and in Round 17, he kicked eight goals against North Melbourne, including his 400th career goal. He also had 21 disposals and 12 marks. He placed second in the Coleman Medal at season's end, eight goals behind winnerBrendan Fevola, and took the most contested marks in the league. He finished the year with a career-high, and Brisbane Lions record, 85 goals and averaged 8.5 marks and 16 disposals per game. His 19Brownlow Medal votes placed him fourth overall and he concluded the year with his third consecutive best and fairest medal, second All-Australian selection and the AFLPA Best Captain Award.
Brown was hampered by injury throughout the 2010 season, causing him to miss six games for the Lions. After a promising start to 2010, Brown and other key Brisbane players were struck by injury, and the team finished the season in 13th position on the ladder. Despite missing six games and the controversial introduction of Coleman MedallistBrendan Fevola to the team, Brown was again the Lions leading goalkicker, with 53 for the season, and he came third in Brisbane's best and fairest, behindMichael Rischitelli andSimon Black.[14] Brown was named the Members' Player of the Year[14] and polled almost half of his best-and-fairest votes in the first four rounds.[15]
Brown suffered a horrific facial injury in the first game of the 2011 season against Fremantle after he was kneed in the head by opposition defenderLuke McPharlin in a marking attempt.
Brown suffered a second facial injury in round 17 of the 2011 season.
Brown suffered a third facial injury in less than three years in a 2012 intraclub match when teammateMatt Maguire kneed him in the head in a marking contest. Doubts started to surface over his career after such consistent damages to his skull.
In 2013,Jed Adcock was named as the Lions' co-captain alongside Brown, and, in 2014, Adcock was named as the sole captain, meaning that the Lions were not captained or co-captained by Brown for the first time since 2007.[16]
Brown was the victim of a fourth facial injury in the Round 13, 2014 clash between the Lions and theGreater Western Sydney Giants. He collided withTomas Bugg's knee and was removed from the ground. He suffered a concussion, causing his retirement from football.
G | Goals | K | Kicks | D | Disposals | T | Tackles |
B | Behinds | H | Handballs | M | Marks |
| Led the league after season and finals |
| Season | Team | No. | Games | Totals | Averages (per game) | Votes | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | B | K | H | D | M | T | G | B | K | H | D | M | T | |||||
| 2000 | Brisbane Lions | 16 | 13 | 5 | 2 | 82 | 41 | 123 | 47 | 11 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 6.3 | 3.2 | 9.5 | 3.6 | 0.8 | 0 |
| 2001 | Brisbane Lions | 16 | 25 | 38 | 22 | 217 | 130 | 347 | 157 | 31 | 1.5 | 0.9 | 8.7 | 5.2 | 13.9 | 6.3 | 1.2 | 5 |
| 2002 | Brisbane Lions | 16 | 19 | 14 | 14 | 143 | 87 | 230 | 97 | 20 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 7.5 | 4.6 | 12.1 | 5.1 | 1.1 | 0 |
| 2003 | Brisbane Lions | 16 | 19 | 27 | 15 | 173 | 113 | 286 | 126 | 31 | 1.4 | 0.8 | 9.1 | 5.9 | 15.1 | 6.6 | 1.6 | 8 |
| 2004 | Brisbane Lions | 16 | 17 | 39 | 21 | 173 | 101 | 274 | 140 | 27 | 2.3 | 1.2 | 10.2 | 5.9 | 16.1 | 8.2 | 1.6 | 8 |
| 2005 | Brisbane Lions | 16 | 14 | 33 | 19 | 142 | 96 | 238 | 103 | 19 | 2.4 | 1.4 | 10.1 | 6.9 | 17.0 | 7.4 | 1.4 | 11 |
| 2006 | Brisbane Lions | 16 | 10 | 35 | 18 | 133 | 56 | 189 | 103 | 13 | 3.5 | 1.8 | 13.3 | 5.6 | 18.9 | 10.3 | 1.3 | 13 |
| 2007 | Brisbane Lions | 16 | 22 | 77 | 38 | 239 | 114 | 353 | 195 | 22 | 3.5 | 1.7 | 10.9 | 5.2 | 16.0 | 8.9 | 1.0 | 17 |
| 2008 | Brisbane Lions | 16 | 21 | 70 | 47 | 223 | 84 | 307 | 167 | 18 | 3.3 | 2.2 | 10.6 | 4.0 | 14.6 | 8.0 | 0.9 | 10 |
| 2009 | Brisbane Lions | 16 | 24 | 85 | 52 | 281 | 104 | 385 | 204 | 25 | 3.5 | 2.2 | 11.7 | 4.3 | 16.0 | 8.5 | 1.0 | 19 |
| 2010 | Brisbane Lions | 16 | 16 | 53 | 24 | 168 | 73 | 241 | 126 | 14 | 3.3 | 1.5 | 10.5 | 4.6 | 15.1 | 7.9 | 0.9 | 12 |
| 2011 | Brisbane Lions | 16 | 10 | 22 | 11 | 89 | 35 | 124 | 64 | 7 | 2.2 | 1.1 | 8.9 | 3.5 | 12.4 | 6.4 | 0.7 | 3 |
| 2012 | Brisbane Lions | 16 | 20 | 47 | 20 | 189 | 108 | 297 | 143 | 20 | 2.4 | 1.0 | 9.5 | 5.4 | 14.9 | 7.2 | 1.0 | 4 |
| 2013 | Brisbane Lions | 16 | 15 | 28 | 15 | 128 | 56 | 184 | 94 | 14 | 1.9 | 1.0 | 8.5 | 3.7 | 12.3 | 6.3 | 0.9 | 2 |
| 2014 | Brisbane Lions | 16 | 10 | 19 | 7 | 64 | 46 | 110 | 44 | 19 | 1.9 | 0.7 | 6.4 | 4.6 | 11.0 | 4.4 | 1.9 | 0 |
| Career | 255 | 592 | 325 | 2444 | 1244 | 3688 | 1810 | 291 | 2.3 | 1.3 | 9.6 | 4.9 | 14.5 | 7.1 | 1.1 | 112 | ||
| Brownlow Medal votes | |
| Season | Votes |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 0 |
| 2001 | 5 |
| 2002 | 0 |
| 2003 | 8 |
| 2004 | 8 |
| 2005 | 11 |
| 2006 | 13 |
| 2007 | 17 |
| 2008 | 10 |
| 2009 | 19 |
| 2010 | 12 |
| 2011 | 3 |
| 2012 | 4 |
| 2013 | 2 |
| 2014 | 0 |
| Total | 112 |
In 2009, Brown featured in an official advertisement for the AFL, running agrid iron field before entering aboxing ring.[18]
In February 2015, Brown joinedFox Footy's commentary team and began featuring onOn the Couch.[19]
In November 2015, Brown was announced as a co-host ofNova 100's new breakfast showChrissie, Sam & Browny, alongsideChrissie Swan andSam Pang.[citation needed]
Brown was selected to present the premiership cup to the Brisbane Lions after their victory in the2025 AFL Grand Final.
Brown's father,Brian Brown, played football withFitzroy and Jonathan was recruited to the Lions under the father–son rule. He is also the nephew of former Fitzroy playerNoel Mugavin[20] and former Collingwood playerBilly Picken, and cousin of Western Bulldogs playerLiam Picken.[21]
On 25 October 2008 Brown married Kylie Adams.[22] They have three children, two girls and a boy.[23][24] He resides in the Melbourne suburb of Camberwell.[citation needed]
