TOP GUN BEN STRIDES AHEAD

BEN Brown has run the equivalent of a marathon in his past three matches … and then some.

The North Melbourne spearhead has clocked up 46.1km on the GPS, ranking No. 1 for ground covered in every match.

You have to go back to Round 11 — when Brisbane’s Oscar McInerney clocked 16.5km — to dislodge Brown as AFL top runner.

“At school I was always in the top couple at cross-country, but I was always dead last in the 100m sprint,” Brown said yesterday.

“I’ve always had that element of being more of an endurance-style athlete, rather than a sprinter.”

Since Round 13 last season, Brown has played 15 games where he has not come to the interchange bench.

It is that work-rate which adds another dimension to the goal- kicking superstar Brown has become.

With Sam Gibson gone, the 200cm and 101kg Brown is the Kangaroos’ best runner.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean I’m running to amazing spots or anything like that,” he said.

“The way I’ve always done it is I’ve tried to stay on the move. [My GPS] is normally around the 15km mark.”

The Coleman Medal favourite has slotted 46.17 this season and is targeted inside 50m more than any other player in the AFL.

Brown — who has interviewed Mike Sheahan for Open Ben on Fox Footy tonight — said he took 80 to 100 shots for goal at training every week, and even more in pre-season.

But Brown, 25, wasn’t fazed at the prospect of becoming North’s first Coleman winner since John Longmire (1990).

“I don’t think it really matters too much to me,” he said.

“It’s about a lot more than kicking goals and that’s what my teammates and my coaches value.

“I’m focused on doing the best things by the team, so we can be around come finals time because we don’t want to be missing out on finals like we did last year.

“We want to give ourselves a real shot to win the premiership this year.”