Past Jonathan Brown #1 (1999-2014)

TheBrownDog said:

I think the club is going to have to offer him 4 years flat out. I cant see any other way.

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Tim the Toolman said:

TBD, if Browny does go will you change your name to "The Dog" or perhaps "The Black Dog"?

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numbat06 said:

wouldnt it be more beneficial to get 1st rounders for him
rather then holding onto a 27/8 yr old who may only have 4 years left...

kinda same situation with kerr
might be better to get picks

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It surprises me little that their exit from the finals race coincided with rumours of a rift between coach Leigh Matthews and co-captain Jonathan Brown.

That's something I can put to rest straight away by saying it will not affect Brown's contract decision because it is simply a non-issue.

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numbat06 said:

wouldnt it be more beneficial to get 1st rounders for him
rather then holding onto a 27/8 yr old who may only have 4 years left...

kinda same situation with kerr
might be better to get picks

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BRISBANE can begin planning its 2009 campaign confident that captain Jonathan Brown will lead a side with a rare clean medical slate into the pre-season.
The skipper and his management company met the Lions at the weekend and are close to confirming his commitment to the club he has represented in 160 games for three premierships.

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Boost for Lions as Jonathan Brown signs four-year deal
Article from:
Andrew Hamilton
September 01, 2008 12:00am

SUPERSTAR AFL forward Jonathan Brown will be a one-club man after signing a new four-year deal with the Brisbane Lions.
Brown has resisted the urge to return to his native Victoria and turned down lucrative feelers from Melbourne clubs, including Collingwood, to re-sign with the Lions. The co-captain apparently re-signed at the weekend, before three-time premiership coach coach Leigh Matthews made his decision to quit the club.
Brown's re-signing will give the beleagured Lions a huge boost as they head into another premature off-season, having missing the finals again.

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Brown stays in Lions' den
By David Reed
11:19 AM Mon 01 September, 2008

LIONS captain Jonathan Brown has confirmed he will stay in Brisbane after agreeing to terms with the club.

“I am staying,” Brown said at Leigh Matthews resignation press conference on Monday morning.

“Obviously this is about Leigh but we came to terms over the weekend.

“I didn’t want to take focus away from the game at the weekend [but] it had already been done.”

Brown said Matthews’ decision to quit had no bearing on his decision to stay.

“No, it was done on the weekend, I found out this morning [about Matthews]

“I wished I had known whether I was going to have to put up with him for the next few years.”

Speculation had been rife with Brown and the club failing to agree on the length of contract for the past few months.

But the Lions’ co-captain and triple premiership player said he was in for the long haul. Brown paid tribute to Matthews saying he was not only his “only coach” but a great teacher, mentor and friend.

Brown said it was up to him to lead the new era of Lions into the future.

Jonathan Brown is staying a Brisbane Lion, he confirmed on Monday

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Brown signs as a Lion for life
By Jim Morton
5:30 PM Mon 01 September, 2008

JONATHAN Brown had no idea that friend, mentor and coach Leigh Matthews would quit as Lions senior coach, but denied it would have changed his mind to commit to the club for the rest of his career.
The silver lining on a tumultuous day for the Lions was spearhead Brown's decision to re-sign with the club that helped him become a triple premiership player before he turned 22.
The star forward revealed he agreed on Saturday to a new multi-season deal, just a day before Matthews told the Lions he was ending his 10-year tenure with one year to run on his contract.
Although disappointed Matthews won't finish the last season of his three-year deal, Brown denied he was fazed at being given no indication of the surprise resignation.
"It was going to have no effect (on re-signing)," Brown said.
"I was going to re-sign so I was comfortable with the fact he was coach.
"It was done on the weekend, I found out this morning (of the resignation).
"We weren't expecting it. Leigh obviously had 12 months to go on his deal, so yeah, it was a shock."
Brown, arguably the game's hottest property, wouldn't detail specifics of his new deal, only to say he'd agreed to terms before the 61-point loss to the Sydney Swans on Saturday night.
Neither would the club break its policy of keeping silent on player contract lengths but it did send out a short press release hailing Brown as a Lion for life.
The Lions co-captain turns 27 next month so club's confirmation he recommitted "effectively for the rest of his playing career" suggests at least a four-year deal.
The 2007 Coleman medallist reportedly wanted a five-year contract to end his career at the Lions, with Collingwood presenting the biggest danger to its hopes of sewing him up as a one-club man.
Brown credited Matthews as the person who had the biggest influence on his professional career, which started at 18 after being recruited from Warrnambool and the Geelong Falcons under 18s.
"He had a massive influence," he said. "He was the bloke that gave me the opportunity.
"He recruited me up here under the father and son rule and then gave me the opportunity to play centre half-forward which is always a difficult position to crack, especially as a younger guy.
"He gave me the confidence to play it and stuck by me. I didn't get a kick in my first year of footy. He gave me that role and made me believe and made me become a better player, so I owe a lot to him.
"There's a bit of disappointment there, a bit of sadness, because Leigh's been my only coach, and he's been a fantastic teacher and a mentor, a coach and more importantly a friend."
Brown shared Matthews' optimism about the future of the Lions despite the club's disappointing end to the season when they spurned a genuine top-four shot by losing seven of their last nine matches, sparked by a one-point defeat to wooden-spooners Melbourne.
He preferred to remain removed from discussions on Matthews' successor, preferring to concentrate on the responsibility of reversing the club's fortunes.
"I just know as a player we have a responsibility to get ourselves up and have a good pre-season and get back to September," Brown said.
"Hopefully all the players are feeling that as well, there's a bit of burning in the guts going on over the next eight weeks of the holidays."

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Brown denies rift with Lethal
1/09/2008 2:48:56 PM
Paul Gough
Sportal

Brisbane Lions' captain Jonathan Brown denied on Monday he only agreed to remain with the club once he learned that coach Leigh Matthews was quitting.

On the same day it was announced that Matthews - the greatest coach in the Lions' history - was quitting with a year remaining on his contract, Brown also announced he had signed a new four year deal to remain with the club ending any chance of him returning to his native Victoria where several Melbourne clubs had been wooing him.

Dismissing suggestions of a rift between the pair, Brown said on Monday it was merely a coincidence that his staying and Matthews' departure had been announced at the same time.

"I came to terms (with the club) over the weekend," he said.

"It (his new contract) had already been done (before Matthews made his decision to quit) so obviously it had no bearing on it."

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Lion Jonathan Brown re-signed before Leigh Matthews' resignation
Article from:
Marco Monteverde and Andrew Hamilton
September 02, 2008 12:00am

BRISBANE Lions talisman Jonathan Brown has insisted he made his long-awaited decision to re-sign with the club before he knew about the resignation of coach Leigh Matthews.

Yesterday's shock news of Matthews standing down after 10 years at the helm was negated by Brown's revelation he had signed with the club for the next four years on a deal understood to be worth $850,000 a season.

"It was done on the weekend," co-captain Brown said yesterday while sitting alongside the departing Matthews.

"I found out this morning about Leigh. Obviously it had no effect because I was going to have to put up with him for the next few years."

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Allan had on Saturday morning re-signed Brown to a long-term deal which involved incentives stretching the contract to five years should Brown's body hold up, but a guaranteed three years if not.

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Jonathon Brown contract 'coincidence'
Article from:
Damian Barrett
September 02, 2008 12:00am

JONATHAN Brown had to settle for a year less than the five he wanted in his latest football contract.
But, given the upside for him in other facets of the deal, it was only small concession he had to make to stay a Brisbane Lion.
The term was a year more than Brisbane was initially adamant it would offer.
The money agreed on, while not as much as being offered by Carlton and Collingwood, was very, very good at more than $800,000 a season.
And Leigh Matthews will never coach him again.
Brisbane and Brown yesterday claimed it was coincidence his decision to stay with the club was made public on the same day it was announced Matthews would leave it.
Brown said his decision to remain was "done on the weekend", presumably when his manager Glenn Warry met Lions' chief executive Michael Bowers and football manager Graeme Allan in Sydney, before that night's Swans-Lions game at the SCG.
"It was going to have no effect (on re-signing). I was going to re-sign so I was comfortable with the fact he was coach," Brown said at the Lions' press conference yesterday.
As the Lions early yesterday planned how best to deal with releasing Matthews' news, they had no initial intention of making public anything relating to Brown.
The Lions, Brown and Matthews have become testy this year whenever asked to comment on the relationship between the big forward and the club's coach from 1999-2008.
There is no doubt, though, it soured significantly from late last year.
Brown had serious reservations about some of Matthews' match-day tactics, including a perceived refusal to deal with opposition teams using loose men in defence.
Matthews felt compelled to apologise for the up-field role he asked Brown to play against Hawthorn at the Gabba in Round 5.
Their biggest public stand-off came in early May when Brown was unable to play against Geelong, but a week later captained Victoria against a Dream team in the AFL's Hall of Fame match.
It is also believed Brown simply told Matthews this year he would no longer pinch-hit as a ruck-rover, particularly at centre square clearances at the Gabba, as he was afraid the rock-hard cricket wicket area would damage his huge frame.
Brown was not the only Brisbane player whose ideas on football had begun to regularly contrast with Matthews.
Many others, including Simon Black and Luke Power, had also tired of what they perceived to be outdated methods and a coach who no longer was able to generate enthusiasm and passion.
That Matthews himself made the call to depart has made life easier than it would have otherwise been for the club board.
This time last year that board agreed to extend Matthews' contract until the end of 2009, a deal on which chairman Tony Kelly said only last week was "full steam ahead".
Yesterday the board accepted Matthews' resignation.
Then, soon after it made public its decision to meet Brown halfway between his requested five-year contract and the three years on which it initially refused to yield.

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Jonathan Brown shapes as Lions' sole skipper under Voss
Article from:
Andrew Hamilton
September 04, 2008 12:00am

THERE was widespread excitement among Brisbane Lions players when they met with their new coach, Michael Voss, for the first time. But for Voss it signalled time to address his long-held view there should be only one captain.

If Voss's previous public utterances are any guide, his first significant change will be to scrap the multiple captaincy model and install Jonathan Brown as the sole leader.

Voss faces the agonising decision over what to do with the club's captaincy structure.

Luke Power has taken his game to new levels since being named a captain, while Simon Black has added more voice to team discussions and on game day to an already peerless playing record.

The two men are firm friends with their former skipper, but Voss has always said Brown was the man.

And Voss has hinted in the past he would adopt the traditional single captaincy model were he ever to be a senior coach.

Just after Matthews set a new AFL benchmark in 2007 by naming five captains - Brown, Black, Power, Chris Johnson and Nigel Lappin - Voss revealed he wasn't a fan of the concept and said he would stick with just one, Brown.

He did add he understood Matthews' rational for attempting to share the load.

"If you had to pick just one Brisbane captain, it'd be Brown. He's a natural leader, a strong personality who has an almighty presence out on the field. You don't need me telling you that," Voss said.

"I'm not going to tell you I'm enamoured with five captains at the Lions.

" I fully understand what Leigh Matthews is trying to do. He's building on the Grant Thomas principle of trying to get more players to be conscious of leading a young group in a rebuilding phase."

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Angry Brown denies Matthews speculation
September 5, 2008 - 12:05AM

Brisbane star Jonathan Brown has angrily denied speculation he only re-signed with the AFL club after he learnt coach Leigh Matthews had resigned.
When Matthews made his shock announcement on Monday, Brown announced at the same media conference that he had committed to the Lions.
Brown's future with Brisbane has been one of the talking points of the season.
The star forward has angrily denied a widespread rumour that as late as Friday, he was headed to Collingwood.
"In my own words, to start off, I will say it's bullshit," he said on Channel Nine's The Footy Show.
Brown said more than a week before Saturday night's season-ending loss to Sydney, he gave his word to Brisbane football manager Graeme "Gubby" Allen.
But they could not finalise the details until Allen returned from a trip to Ireland.
"I knew 10 days before the Sydney game," Brown said.
"'Gubby' said are we right? And I said `we're right mate' - obviously the football people couldn't get together until Gubby was back.
"The first time that happened was on Saturday morning, before the Sydney game, when they could meet with my manager and do the finalisation of the deal.
"I was shocked on Sunday when I heard Leigh was going to give it away - obviously the first thing I thought was `well, gee, this is going to look bad, you know what the conspiracy theorists are going to be saying'."
The club will not confirm details of the contract but the new deal effectively means Brown will end his stellar football career with Brisbane.
Brown added he had a healthy relationship with Matthews and they had not fallen out.
"Leigh Matthews is a very good friend of mine," he said.

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There was no rift between Lethal and me: Jonathan Brown
Article from:
Jonathan Brown
September 05, 2008 12:00am

I WANT to set the record straight. My decision to re-sign with Brisbane Lions had absolutely nothing to do with Leigh Matthews' resignation as coach. Reports to the contrary are a load of garbage. It'd be laughable if it weren't so seriously wrong.

You understand in professional sport that sometimes facts get a little distorted or exaggerated, but there's a difference between that and straight out fabrication.

To say I only committed to the Brisbane Lions after confirmation that Leigh Matthews was moving on is not only baseless rubbish, it's an insult to the journalistic profession and a discredit to the majority who do a good job.

What disappoints me most is that some people read it and actually believe there is some truth to it.

In fact, I made the decision in my own mind to stick with the Lions about 10 days before the last game against Sydney on Saturday. Only my fiancee Kylie and I knew, and we sat on it for a while just to make absolutely certain there were no second thoughts.

On Saturday morning, before the Sydney game, the deal was done.

Why did it drag on? Because it was such a big decision. It's probably the last contract I'll ever sign and I wanted to get it right.

I didn't say anything through the process and only spoke to a handful of people about it because I didn't want any outside influences.

It was much more than a decision about contracts and terms. I also had to weigh up family, lifestyle and life after football. In the end, we decided Brisbane was home and it's where we wanted to be.
I love the Brisbane Lions, always have and always will. To be a one-club player means a lot to me.

That doesn't say I didn't weigh up my options. I did. That was my responsibility to my family. But in the end the decision wasn't all that hard.

I've got nothing but total respect and admiration for Leigh Matthews and I was as shocked as anyone when I heard on Sunday night he was calling it quits.

Sure, we had a difference of opinion twice during the year. One was when he didn't want me to play in the Hall of Fame tribute game and the other was when he apologised for not taking me off the ground in a game against Hawthorn in round 5.

So what?! He was just doing his job trying to keep me out of the state game and as for the second incident, it was nothing. I'm a big boy. I didn't need any apologies over a non-issue.

But Leigh will always be the bloke who gave me my chance in AFL footy. He rode me pretty hard in the early days, which showed he cared and he gave me the confidence to know I could hold down centre half-forward even as a young fella.

He was enormous for me and I'll always be proud to call him a friend. Such a good friend, in fact, that he's coming to my wedding next month.

I learnt so much from the great man I could write a book about it but if there's one lasting lesson it is the importance of role-playing in a team. He always said "know your role, accept your role and play your role".

That was the key to the Lions' success. We had a lot of superstars but the ability of everyone to do their job was the ultimate key ... and that was the Matthews trademark.

It'll be no different under Michael Voss, whose appointment on Tuesday topped off a week the likes of which I've never experienced and probably never will again.

I didn't find out about Vossy's appointment until Steve the painter, who is renovating my home, told me on Tuesday afternoon, so that's the final nail in the great Brown/Matthews/Voss conspiracy theory.

It was a natural progression. Just as he was a great captain I've got no doubt he'll be a great coach.

That he's been a good mate to some of the players is a non-issue. As a captain he was hard on his players and he'll be no different as a coach. We'd certainly expect nothing less.

If there is one thing that will be the cornerstone of his coaching philosophy it is that the team always comes first.

Vossy set some strong and clear guidelines when he addressed the player group for the first time on Wednesday, but the most important thing for the players is not the coach but some harsh self-assessment. As a group we must take responsibility for the serious inconsistencies of this year that cost us a finals spot.

It doesn't matter who was coach or is coach - the buck must stop with the playing group. And unless we become more consistent it wouldn't matter if Superman was in charge next year.

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LAST Friday Collingwood thought it had its man. Jonathan Brown would strut the forward line for the Magpies in 2009. Only days before that Brisbane thought it had its coach. Leigh Matthews said he wanted to coach on into 2009 and Brisbane chairman Tony Kelly said he thought it an excellent idea.

Yesterday morning Brown said he was staying at the Lions and Matthews decided he had lost the drive to coach the club he had taken to four grand finals in a row.

It seems more than a little quirky that these remarkable developments happened independently of one another. Brown out but in; Matthews staying but gone. And both those decisions have seen Michael Voss, one moment in Perth, now in Brisbane. It is worth further examination.

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notting18 said:

Now that Browny's future plans are settled, I think that I speak for all lions supporters when I wish "Kyles" the best in popping out some boys ASAP!

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