Brown has kicked 33 goals in the past five weeks, but Croadis also showing form. The talented defender held Bombers star Matthew Lloyd tojust two majors in the Hawks’ 63-point win at the weekend.
“Croady will be all over it,” Vandenberg says.
“He’ll be preparing for it from today on, no doubt. Croadyloves a challenge, he loves playing on the big names. He’s been around the gamefor 10 years, and something that Croady certainly prides himself on is beingable to put himself up against the best and, hopefully, beat them.
“Obviously Jonathan Brown’s in some rare form at the moment,but I think Croady’s starting to show, too, that he can match it with justabout anyone.”
However Vandenberg points out that the responsibility forcontaining the star Brisbaneforward will not lie with Croad alone.
“We’ve got a philosophy with all those big, tall forwardswho are dominating the competition. The most important thing, first andforemost, is that we defend the goals so, while Croady may be matched up toJonathan Brown, it is everyone’s responsibility to stop the supply to him … [and]just as importantly keep an eye on the other forwards as well.”
The captain believes that winning the midfield duel will be thekey to keeping Brown’s goal count down.
“They’ve got a lot of pace through the midfield, that’s oneof our strengths. So it’s going to be a good match-up. Looking at the way theLions are playing, they’d be considering the midfield as being one of theirstrengths. We’ll obviously have to try and limit their supply through themidfield, because if we give them open ball, Jonathan Brown is going to becomea very hard man to stop.”
Vandenberg admits that the Lions’ five-game winning streakmakes them a tough assignment.
“They completely ran the Kangaroos off their feet and wewere unable to do that the week before, so we’ve an enormous respect for themat the moment.”
