STEVEN Browne's AFL career is just seven games young, but the tough back-pocket player has already become a firm favourite of the Carlton faithful.

The 19-year-old's uncompromising attack on the ball and attention to his man has also impressed the Blues coaching staff.

Unlike many youngsters, Browne is not a kick-chaser, and says it has been the confidence placed in him by coach Brett Ratten that has kept him focused.

"'Ratts' has been pretty focused on staying on your man and just doing your job," Browne said.

"And if you do your job, you'll play next week.

"I've played on Michael Braun, I played on Travis Johnstone for a bit, I played on Andrew Lovett for a bit of [Sunday's] game and some other small forwards.

"I will probably stay in the back pocket and hopefully work my way into the middle later."

Browne also reckons the crowd of 59,177 at the MCG at Sunday's match against Essendon was about 30 times more people than he had played in front of before coming to Melbourne this season.

"I think that [60,000] would be my max," Browne said.

"Before I came to Carlton, the most would have been about 2000 at Arena Joondalup."

It was at that vast suburban ground that Browne caught the eye of the Blues while playing WAFL for West Perth.

He was picked by the Blues with selection number 36 in the 2007 national draft and plugged into the senior line-up for the round six clash with Adelaide at the MCG. He has missed just one match since, when he was dropped for the round 12 match against Collingwood.

A 35-possession performance for the Northern Bullants ensured his stay in the VFL was for just one week.

Browne's run of senior games is more than he expected.

"I was just hoping for one game, so to play seven now is awesome," he said.

"I have just got to keep it up and look forward to the coming weeks, because for me, it is just one week at a time and do the best you can and see if you can get another game."

Browne said he had settled easily into Melbourne life with a bunch of youthful teammates helping the transition from Perth.

"I am loving Melbourne. It's a way better city than Perth, but the weather is a lot different. And there's no beach. But I'll get used to it."

A constant at Browne's matches has been his father Craig, whose Perth denture clinic has taken a back seat while he follows his son's embryonic AFL career around the country.

Steve's mother Marie has also been to Melbourne to watch her son.

"It has been really good to have my family over supporting me," Browne said.

"Dad has been here for a few weeks now, and it's great when they come over from Perth."

As for Sunday's match, Browne said the obvious fault was the ordinary first quarter, when the Blues fell 39 points behind Essendon.

"We like to have a good first quarter and we just didn't have it. So we had to chip away from there," he said.

"It was coming down the backline heaps in the first quarter. We matched up better in the second and third quarters, but the first quarter really hurt us.

"We are just trying to achieve the best we can, and if we get in the top eight in the coming weeks, we have got to push forward and try to keep winning games.

"We really need to look forward to next week against Richmond and try and do better."

And with the Tigers pushing for 100G [100,000 fans] at the G this weekend, it could be another big first for Browne.