The champion forward had just six touches in a match that was level at 63-points apiece heading into the final quarter, despite Brisbane having 11 more inside-50s up to that point.
Much of this was due to Mackenzie locking down Brown which allowed the other Eagle defenders to smother Brisbane's attacks and limit genuine goal-kicking opportunities.
“He’s been a very solid defender for us for a couple of years after his development phase,” Worsfold said of Mackenzie.
“He’s doing a super job for the boys.
“It was a tough day for Browny. There’s no doubt about that. The conditions didn’t suit him, but he still played his role pretty well.
"Eric had to work extremely hard. (He) certainly did his role for us.”
In wet conditions, the Eagles could have appeared overloaded with tall players at either end, but Worsfold was confident his players had the all-round ability to deal with the challenge and was proven correct.
“We considered (changing) it but elected to stay with what we had,” Worsfold said.
“We were confident both (Darren Glass) and Will (Schofield), especially, are agile enough to run with smaller players for periods of the game and give us some advantage in other areas as well.
“Overall we were comfortable that they would be able to get their work done.
“The conditions made it tight. We talked about the fact we have to play with intensity for the full 120 minutes because you don’t know when the break will come.”
Worsfold was happy with Nic Naitanui’s contribution in his first full match of 2013 and believes he is already close to peak fitness.
After starting as substitute last week, the Flying Fijian kicked two goals, had 15 disposals and 29 hit-outs in a competitive ruck battle with Matthew Leuenberger.
“In those conditions he was a threat up forward, he rucked well, he was good on the ground (and) competitive, he looks like he’s doing pretty well,” Worsfold said.
“He looked pretty comfortable which was good for us. On his program, the boys believed he was ready to play 90 mins of football. He’s only gonna play 100 minutes or so.
“He’ll get more condition for another month or so.”
The good news on the injury front keeps coming with Beau Waters, Sam Butler and Andrew Embley expected to be in contention for North Melbourne on Friday night, as well as short-term absentees Daniel Kerr and Chris Masten.
