COLLINGWOOD premiership player Leigh Brown is refusing to spend any time or energy thinking about his life after football, despite the fact he could be playing his final game on Friday night.
Earlier this month, the 29-year-old somewhat surprisingly announced he would retire at the end of the 2011 season.
With the Magpies set to face Hawthorn in a cut-throat preliminary final at the MCG, Brown could be just days away from hanging up the boots, should the Hawks upset the reigning premiers.
But the versatile ruckman-forward wasn't keen on discussing his post-football career, playing a straight bat to questions about a possible coaching career.
"It (the imminent conclusion of his playing career) really isn't hard to think about, it's reality - but hopefully I've got two weeks of footy left," Brown said.
"I'm not thinking about [my plans after football] right now - I've got to prepare for Hawthorn this week, hopefully get through that and get in another Grand Final."
Brown has been undertaking an AFLCA coaching course, and has spend the past three seasons in a coaching role with the Calder Cannons under-18 team and the Victoria Metro under-17 side.
A possible coaching career will have to wait though, with Brown hoping to add a second premiership medallion to the one he secured last season.
He expects Hawthorn to pose a significant threat, but dismissed suggestions star Hawk Lance Franklin was the only thing standing in the way of another Grand Final berth.
"They are a great team, but we're not going to focus on 'Buddy' even though he's a fantastic player," Brown said.
"They'll have 22 players out on the park so we need to look at all of them, we're not going to focus just on Buddy. We have to worry about their whole team.
"We have to play better each week as we progress through the finals - we played some good footy against West Coast but we'll have to play better against Hawthorn, they looked pretty good the other night."
The 194cm, 102kg veteran said the Magpies would enter the match with perhaps the strongest team they had fielded all season.
Brown was first drafted by Fremantle with the fifth overall pick in the 1999 AFL Draft, playing 62 games in three seasons before moving to North Melbourne, where he played 118 games from 2003-08.
After being delisted by the Kangaroos, Brown was drafted by the Magpies with the 73rd overall pick in the 2008 NAB AFL Draft.
Niall Seewang is a sub editor for afl.com.au. Follow him on Twitter @NCWang
