Brown roo-defines his game in Dees flag tilt

IT was back to the future for Ben Brown in his bid to cement a place in Melbourne’s forward line as the towering Tasmanian attempted to climb his way out of the Demons’ VFL team mid-season.

As he searched for the magic touch that made him a formidable force for North Melbourne, Big Ben resorted

to watching footage of himself at his peak for the Kangaroos.

It paid handsomely for the 200cm, 142-game, and 309goal spearhead.

He is now the established tall in the front 50m and will be a key member of Melbourne’s attack in its first grand final since 2000 and chasing the club’s first premiership since 1964.

“I had to go back to my

strengths and what I do really well, and took me going back and looking at old vision of me playing with North Melbourne and comparing that to more recent vision,” Brown said. “There were a couple of things I’d almost forgotten I did really well. They were the things I was doing to give myself the best opportunity to mark the ball or bring it to ground, the pressure I can put

on, having shots in multiple ways, getting up the ground and having an impact, which I am doing more at Melbourne than when I was at North.

“There are lots of intricacies but I’ve done my best to fit into the role the team needs to play.”

It will take mental strength to avoid playing the grand final over and over in his head before running out.

“Things will go through your mind, but it’s trying to keep a lid on your own expectations of what is going to happen,” Brown said.

“If you set yourself to kick 10 and its starts not panning out that way, you can go down a slippery slope pretty quickly from a mental perspective.

“I will set myself to do my absolute best at every contest, and that means watching vision

of my opposition to make sure I know what they are going to be doing and how they are going to be defending against me.

“Then I’ll do some visualisation – visualising kicking straight for goal and marking the ball at its highest point, which is what I do well.

“The focus is on those individual skills and individual moments.”