>>Australian Football League Thread<<

Brown's focus on round one
11:40:39 AM Wed 25 January, 2006
Angus Morgan
Sportal for afl.com.au

Mercurial forward Nathan Brown remains hopeful of taking his place in the Tigers line-up for the opening round clash against the Western Bulldogs.

Brown, whose 2005 season was cut short by a nasty broken leg suffered against Melbourne in round 10, remains on a restricted program.

At training at Victoria Park on Wednesday morning, Brown joined in the warm-ups before moving aside to work on his goalkicking while the rest of the squad engaged in simulated match practice using the entire ground.

After half-an-hour he retired to the massage table for some physiotherapy on his calf, ankle and achilles.

Brown said he's been taking it easy on Wednesdays to keep him fresh for the club's Monday and Friday training runs.

"Hopefully over the next month or so I will be able to step it up to three full sessions, but at the moment two sessions is a helluva lot more than I've been doing," he said.

"It's been a long, long road so far, but I'm looking forward to hopefully getting back in round one."

Brown told Sport 927 he would take part in the NAB Cup only if the Tigers happened to make the Grand Final, but would look to get involved in practice matches heading into the season proper.

"I would like to play a half and then a full game before round one. I'm not going to go into round one without footy under my belt," he said.

Veteran defenders Mark Chaffey - who will be awarded life membership of the club at the Richmond AGM to be held tonight - and Darren Gaspar and youngster Richard Tambling joined Brown on the sidelines during match practice, where there was little body contact and the focus was on hitting targets.

Chris Newman, skipper Kane Johnson, Joel Bowden and Shane Tuck were standouts during the session.



> go you tigers!!!!!!

jeff's_the_man wrote:

hey footy, cool... i never realised this thread was here!!!
will definatley b posting more here during the comin year...

go the crows!!!

once the season fires up this thread should be cranking!

bigmuzz wrote:

i played league for 8 years, so maybe i am a bit biased........

the only time i played AFL was for school teams....and i made it to regional without even knowing how to play the game, that was pretty funny......

i mainly made it i think because im fairly big and can kick a pretty long way...other than that i had no idea what i was supposed to do

but i know how to play the game now, after actually watching a couple of games over the last few years

lol...nice...I can only kick about 40-45 metres but my best asset is my handballing.
I take it you can bomb them over 50 metres?

bigmuzz wrote:

i remember once tho i got in trouble for ankle tapping a guy while playing AFL...he was going for a kick at goal, and i couldnt catch him to tackle him, so i ankle tapped him big time, and it worked (you can't kick without your foot!!! so thought i...)

but apparently that isnt allowed! hehehe

lol no tripping is not allowed in AFL
are u allowed to trip in rugby??

NAB CUP FIXTURE

Week One

Friday, 24th February venue LOC EST
1. Brisbane Lions v Essendon Carrara 19:40 20:40
2. Western Bulldogs v Melbourne Marrara 20:10 21:40
Saturday, 25th February LOC EST
3. Kangaroos v Sydney Manuka Oval 14:10 14:10
4 Hawthorn v Richmond Telstra Dome
(Double-Header) 16:10 16:10
5 Carlton v Geelong Telstra Dome
(Double-Header) 19:40 19:40
Sunday, 26th February LOC EST
6. Adelaide v Port Adelaide AAMI Stadium 13:40 14:10
7. Collingwood v St.Kilda Telstra Dome 16:40 16:40
8. West Coast v Fremantle Subiaco 16:10 19:10

Week Two - Quarter Finals

Friday, 3rd March LOC EST
9. #1 v #2 (BL/Ess v WBD/Mel) Telstra Dome 19:40 19:40
Saturday, 4th March LOC EST
10. #4 v #6 (Haw/Ric v Ade/Port) Aurora Stadium 18:40 18:40
12. #3 v #5 (Kang/Syd v Car/Geel) Cazaly Stadium 19:45 20:45
Sunday, 5th March LOC EST
11. #7 v #8 (WCE/Fre v Coll/Stk) Subiaco 16:10 19:10

Week Three - Semi Finals
Friday, 10th March LOC EST
13. Winners of Matches 9 & 10 TBA 19:40 19:40
Saturday, 11th March LOC EST
14. Winners of Matches 11 & 12 TBA 19:10 19:10

Week Four - Grand Final
Saturday, 18th March LOC EST
15. Winners of Matches 13 & 14 TBA 19:10 19:10

Give Brown time: Johnson
11:15:15 AM Thu 16 February, 2006
Paul Gough
Exclusive to afl.com.au

Richmond skipper Kane Johnson has warned fans not to expect too much of his vice-captain this year, Nathan Brown.

Brown, on the comeback trail from that shocking broken leg sustained in round 10 last year, is expected to be ready for the start of the home and away season in late March.

But Johnson says it would be unrealistic to expect the talented forward to be his old self straight away.

The former Bulldog kicked 34 goals in the first ten rounds last year, including five in the last quarter against Collingwood in round eight, to ensure the Tigers made a flying start to the season under new coach Terry Wallace.

But after seven wins in the first ten rounds, the club struggled without Brown in winning only three of its last 12 games to miss the finals.

However Johnson said it would be asking too much to expect Brown to get back to his dominant early season form of last year in 2006.

"I think his best (form) will be in 2007," Johnson said of Brown.

"The determination of the guy, there is no doubt he will be out there for round one and he he's had some good (training) sessions but then there are some sessions where he looks proppy but that will happen for the first 12 months."

However Johnson said such was Brown's skill that he could still be a valuable player for the Tigers in 2006, even if not at his match-winning best.

"He is that skilful that he could end up doing anything, but if he can kick even 25-30 (goals for the season) he will take the pressure off (Kayne) Pettifer and (Andrew) Krakouer and he will still take the best opposition backman every week."

"So if we can get 25-30 goals out of him, out of a forward pocket this year we will be happy, but we are not looking for him to play only half the games, we are looking for him to play 20-22 rounds."

Johnson said Brown's sheer presence on the field would help Pettifer and Krakouer, who last year kicked 31 and 23 goals respectively to finish third and fourth on the Tigers' goalkicking list behind Matthew Richardson and Brown.

Pettifer, 24, and Krakouer, 23, are both heading into their sixth AFL seasons and Johnson said it was vital the pair continued to improve this year if the Tigers were to make the eight.

"They are the sort of players where we will get our improvement from," he said in also nominating 20-year-old key defender Jay Schulz.

"Our older blokes are playing at their peak but these younger blokes have to take a hold of the competition."