Brown wasn't sure what do to or where to go to make an impact. He was playing in a tweaked, expanded role and it wasn't working.
Click here to read Ben Brown's draft profile and watch video of the big man in action
After moving from Tasmania last year and joining VFL side Werribee over summer, the first two games of the tall forward's VFL stint were not a immediate success.
"It was a big move and, to begin with, it was pretty hard," Brown said. "It's a different game, the tempo was tough to keep up with. It was new."
After being lured across the Tasman by Werribee recruiter Mark Stone, Brown was dropped to the team's reserves side after spending most of his second game watching North Melbourne ruck duo Majak Daw and Daniel Currie take hold of his preferred position.
"I was sitting there feeling a bit useless, at that stage," Brown said.
A four-goal game in the development league saw him back in the senior side, back with some confidence, and back in the groove.
He stayed there all season, and the 20-year-old is now in a position he has been in three times before: waiting and wondering if his name will be read out by a club at the NAB AFL Draft. He has reason to believe this is his best shot.
Brown was eligible for the 2010 intake, and went to that year's state screening, but tore his anterior cruciate ligament in the middle of the season and was overlooked.
St Kilda's Jimmy Webster – then a teammate with Tasmania's under-18 side – ran into him accidentally, and Brown missed out on being drafted. He set his mind to be back playing by the under-18 championships the next year, which team officials had already assured him of a place as an over-aged player.
But his return was dogged by groin issues, niggles that stopped him from showing the things that had made him a talent in the first place: his ability to run opponents off their feet, and turn quickly in tight situations.
He went to the 2011 national draft combine at Etihad Stadium but, again, did not win a spot on an AFL list.
He has been fit since, a tick from people watching and reviewing him as a serious prospect.
"I think I was labelled as injury prone and I think I've gotten past that being at the front of my name," said Brown, who is 199cm and 99kg.
His 2012 season for Glenorchy at senior level in Tasmania exposed him to bigger bodies, and having knocked back opportunities with Werribee and South Adelaide in the SANFL, he had a good year.
Stone went over to meet Brown in Tasmania and again asked the question. "Do you want to come over to play VFL?"
"It was the right time, I felt, to really push myself to put my name up," Brown said. "I've had AFL ambitions the last few years, so that was a big thing behind it."
Brown, who played in the Tasmanian under-18 and under-20 state basketball teams, played a big part in Werribee's progression to the VFL preliminary final in 2013.
In 18 games he kicked 29 goals, showing he can play a dual role in the ruck and as a marking target. He was again invited to the draft combine in October, and this year recorded good times in the agility, running and long-distance tests.
A competitor by nature, he wants to improve all of the elements of his game.
"I'm hard on myself, and I always push myself to get better," he said. "If there's someone better than me, that gets to me. I go to a gym with my mate who I live with, and if he's going to the gym and I was thinking about having a day off, I go. It just gets me in the stomach if someone's doing more than I am."
At the combine he roomed with fellow VFL players Chris Cain and Sam Lloyd, and despite having been there before, it was the unfamiliar faces that stuck with him.
He didn't recognise many of the younger players and they didn't recognise him, even though he was hard to miss. His mop of red, fuzzy hair bounced with every step, and the clubs are just as inquisitive about it as everyone else.
"They always ask the question," Brown says.
Meeting clubs has been a regular occurrence in the second half of Brown's year, a nice distraction from studying a journalism and sociology degree at Deakin University. He enjoys talking to them about his improvement since the last time they came knocking, but knows there are no guarantees.
"It really doesn't get your hopes up, and that's something I've learned over the last three years," he said.
"Probably the first year, you get your hopes up, and then you learn pretty quickly you can't read much into them.
"You could have 18 interviews and not get picked up. It's important to keep your feet on the ground and that's 100 per cent what I'll be doing this year."
Twitter: @AFL_CalTwomey
