Your opinion in Ben Brown.

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TheWaffles

Debutant
Jan 12, 2019
71
88
AFL Club
Hawthorn
So the kids a jet- I love him.

I was at the lions north game. Taking out the 1 on 1 near half time where Andrews has no chance, in general I felt Andrews was able to nullify him.

Now Harris is probably the best match up in the comp for him (long arms gives best chance of the spoil and Andrews has great timing).

But my question is this for north fans - do you think with bens hard lead and jump to highest point method of marking, that the adjustment to the hands in the back rule hurts him the most of any forward? as the defenders can get away with a nudge more easily? Pushing him under the ball.

It looked to happen a few times on the weekend and I think they would have been frees last year. I know it’s early in the season, but I just wanted your thoughts.

And to repeat. He’s a gun and this isn’t a troll. I’d take him any day of the week. Hands in the back or not.
 

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A good player who gets a game every week and deservedly so but I think he’d be a fairly easy matchup if you were a strong key defender. Brown isn’t very good one on one and prefers his delivery out in front on the lead. If a defender can body him that’s where he’s ineffective as he can’t really take contested marks or use his size to advantage. If he is able to gain separation from his defender then it’s a different ball game, and the defender he’s playing on is in for a long day as he is a great set shot on goal and rarely wastes a chance, despite missing an easy one on the weekend.
 
Sorry. Typo on phone. Meant “your”

I’m genuinely interested

Has been in average form in pre-season after limited prep. I though he started to find form again in the second half last week.

The biggest thing he needs to do is just run at the ball and stop looking for frees. He never used to do it, but started to about mid/late last year. I think it coincided with him getting injured and losing some pace.


If he is fit and runs at the ball, hands in to back rule will not stop him. Not many can.
 
Was exposed second half of last year when defenders started scragging, double teaming and tunneling. Looks to me his confidence is shot and he's struggling not having another key forward to take off some pressure (ie, Waite).

Still, he's kicked five goals in two games. I expect him to become more confident and damaging when some of our other fowards pull their finger out.
 
He's building nicely.

Kicked 3.2 on the best one on one opposition full back in the comp, off a limited pre-season, and could have had more free kicks.
 
Has obvious strengths and weaknesses. In a good team will be hard to stop, in a crap team will be lucky to fire.

Seems like a big friendly giant sort of guy, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the Sydney types (scraggers) will take him to the cleaners, without fear of even a few solid bumps to the back in response.
 
Tom Jonas always seems to play him well, just the edging under the footy to impede his run and jump at it. Has had a quiet start relative to his standards, but has had a late start to pre season and has been the beneficiary of some absolutely woeful inside 50s.

He will hit his straps soon, starting this week at the G!

On SM-G950F using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
There is one thing and one thing alone that is hindering where he is at.

The lack of any real other tall presence in the forward line.

He was better playing alongside a makeshift forward in Campbell.

The leap in potency would be significant if he had a genuine tall forward in the side.

The leap would be that again if we had, and had the midfield to carry, an additional 2.

He's bloody good footballer playing wit 4/5ths of FA support in his role.

We need a CHF badly.
 
Ben was soundly beaten by Harris Andrews on Sunday. However, more importantly, Ben could still have kicked 6 goals with a tad more luck. This proves that even on a bad day, he manages to get himself in a position to seriously impact the scoreboard. Priceless!


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
Love him, works extremely hard and for a guy that looks like a big goofy giraffe is actually pretty competitive. Can get worked under the ball a little too easily (Rance did it well last year - legally or not is another debate) and it doesn’t help like others here have mentioned that he generally has two defenders sitting on him and we continually just drop the ball on his head
 
Brown plays his best football when he starts deep in the forward 50 and goes out on strong leads, it is very hard for him to be spoiled legally so even if he doesn't mark it he will often get a free kick for chopping the arms or in the back or being held which is more obvious for umpires to notice when on a lead.

He hurt his foot in the second half of the season last year and instead of operating on him then and letting him recover before the pre-season started we decided to force him to play with an injury so he didn't lead as much and he became easier to defend against and he lost his confidence somewhat, which we have done time and again to injured players under Brad Scott, Aaron Black the most recent one before Brown. I guess Brad hates colours, lucky we didn't recruit Green... or White. :stern look

So instead of having a full pre-season he had an injury interrupted one where he had to recover from his post season surgery and he is underdone and hasn't been leading like he should be. He has had a few games now, I think he will eventually get his touch back.
 

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Was exposed second half of last year when defenders started scragging, double teaming and tunneling. Looks to me his confidence is shot and he's struggling not having another key forward to take off some pressure (ie, Waite).

Still, he's kicked five goals in two games. I expect him to become more confident and damaging when some of our other fowards pull their finger out.

Do you mean he was exposed when the opposition resorted to cheating on him while he had a hip injury and the umps gave him no protection at all?
 
Brown plays his best football when he starts deep in the forward 50 and goes out on strong leads, it is very hard for him to be spoiled legally so even if he doesn't mark it he will often get a free kick for chopping the arms or in the back or being held which is more obvious for umpires to notice when on a lead.

He hurt his foot in the second half of the season last year and instead of operating on him then and letting him recover before the pre-season started we decided to force him to play with an injury so he didn't lead as much and he became easier to defend against and he lost his confidence somewhat, which we have done time and again to injured players under Brad Scott, Aaron Black the most recent one before Brown. I guess Brad hates colours, lucky we didn't recruit Green... or White. :stern look

So instead of having a full pre-season he had an injury interrupted one where he had to recover from his post season surgery and he is underdone and hasn't been leading like he should be. He has had a few games now, I think he will eventually get his touch back.

Greenwood!!!
 
Umpires clearly been instructed to pay him nothing unless he's beheaded.


Clarkson's psychological priming of the umpiring department ensures this will continue on Sunday.

What has upstanding citizen of the decade Brad Scott done to counter this? Nothing.
 
Clarkson's psychological priming of the umpiring department ensures this will continue on Sunday.

What has upstanding citizen of the decade Brad Scott done to counter this? Nothing.

He's got no cred with umpire criticism after that incident with Lindsey (after a Hawthorn game too.)
 
Has a remarkable ability to kick goals even when out of form, and also has a remarkable ability to attract ridiculous criticism on here when kicking said goals.

Thought he was pretty decent on the weekend against a very good opponent. Should have kicked four and had another couple of good leads burnt by poor delivery.
 
Clarkson's psychological priming of the umpiring department ensures this will continue on Sunday.

What has upstanding citizen of the decade Brad Scott done to counter this? Nothing.

Actually, one of the few areas where Brad can't be bagged is his willingness to stand up to the umpires, even if it has cost us long term.

2017 - takes on "FreeKickBulldogs

https://www.triplem.com.au/story/br...ights-umpiring-against-western-bulldogs-40714

2016 - sticks up for Lindsay

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/...k/news-story/37eb1353d860963b802975a37f4f18c9
 
Has a remarkable ability to kick goals even when out of form, and also has a remarkable ability to attract ridiculous criticism on here when kicking said goals.

Thought he was pretty decent on the weekend against a very good opponent. Should have kicked four and had another couple of good leads burnt by poor delivery.

Yep, clearly operates better with another big forward by his side, kind of like the anti-Riewoldt (who stole his Coleman last year)
 
Yep, clearly operates better with another big forward by his side, kind of like the anti-Riewoldt (who stole his Coleman last year)

We just need to be smarter about our inside 50 deliveries. If we go to him 9 out of 10 times even when he is a bad option and ignore all other forwards then the other defenders are going to sag off and get in his way. If we go to our forwards who are left in space, they will be forced to play on their man.
 
Reminds me a little of Horse.
Very good when running in a straight line, and a great mark on the lead.
Has the turning circle of an Aircraft Carrier and is about as slow when trying to change direction.
Both at their best when played out of the goal square.

Longmire was better at the contested mark, Brown is a better shot at goal.
 
Oh boohoo he gets tunneled and tag teamed, you think our defenders don't use the same tactic? Good tall forwards find a way.

Ben has gone from being able to mark any incoming ball (while in a pack) to now struggling with a contested mark 1 on 1.
On the weekend he went to take a mark on the wing and right in front of my eyes he turned his back and played for the free instead. Completely flopped. It was embarrassing.

He has dropped a long way but i have absolute faith we've already started seeing some signs of his former self coming back.
 

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