It was a bold statement given the teenager had spent his entire first season at Collingwood with its VFL affiliate. But something had clicked inside Brown.
"I didn't just want to end up being a fizzer," he said. "I figured I was either going to end up being delisted or I was going to make something of it. So from that moment on I just really had a crack, I just really went 100 miles an hour at it."
Brown's anxiety had been heightened by the fact his twin brother, Mitch, had played five games in his first season with West Coast. The pair had been inseparable growing up on the family farm at Haddon, 20 minutes from Ballarat, and played all their junior football together before going to opposite ends of the country in the 2006 National Draft.
Nathan was the Magpies’ first pick at No.10; Mitch also went in the first round, at No.16 to West Coast. "We were really competitive in everything we did so I must admit watching him playing those games made me a bit angry," Brown said. "It made me push harder.”
Over the pre-season the 19-year-old transformed his body. If he was going to make it as the key position defender coach Mick Malthouse wanted, he had to start looking like one. He already had tremendous athleticism for his 195cm frame, thanks mainly to a brilliant junior basketball career which almost saw him try out for the NBL, yet he needed more bulk. In the space of four months, he added seven kg to a 91kg frame.
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