The Standard | TRIPLE Brisbane Lions premiership forward Jonathan Brown would love to see the Hampden league challenge the state’s top five interleague powerhouses.
The South Warrnambool export helped Bottle Greens coach Chris McLaren take training at Reid Oval last night as the squad ramped up preparations for its seventh-versus-eighth battle against Murray on May 23.
Brown took part in a skills session in rain and wind as players from all 10 clubs ran around in the first of four training runs.
The 2007 Coleman medallist said he’d love to see Hampden compete with Ovens and Murray, Geelong and Goulburn Valley.
“It will be nice to see with the interleague team if we could get it back up to start challenging some of the stronger leagues like teams of yesteryear I suppose,” Brown said.
“It is pretty challenging. There are some pretty good country leagues around and obviously we have the challenge of being a fair distance from Melbourne …you lose a lot of good young kids.
“I think everyone seems pretty keen to play this year and it’s a home game as well.”
Brown and McLaren, a Koroit premiership defender, played TAC Cup together for Geelong Falcons in the late 1990s.
Brown said he was keen to help out the new Bottle Greens mentor with his preparations.
“I have heard there’s a fair bit of talent in the squad so it will be good to run the eye over them and pass on a few points along the way and a little bit of advice,” he said before training.
“It’s good to be back helping out the Hampden league.
“It’s a pretty wet night tonight so I won’t be reinventing the wheel but I think the main thing is that representative training is all about the relationships and guys getting used to training with each other and playing with each other.”
Media commitments with Fox Footy will stop Brown from watching the interleague clash.
But he will be back in the south-west next weekend for a special South Warrnambool reunion honouring the 29 Roosters who have gone on to play VFL-AFL football.
“Being the new boy I couldn’t pull two weekends off in a row,” Brown said.
“I’ll be watching with interest from a distance.”
Brown, who retired last season with 256 games to his credit, said he was enjoying his foray into the commentary box.
“It’s a unique job (football media). You go hard for six months and then you don’t really have anything for six months,” he said.
“But I am enjoying being back working. I obviously had the last six months off and it’s good to be back involved in the footy industry, albeit without the pressure of preparing your body, which was becoming very challenging towards the end.
“I am enjoying watching all games of footy and following all the teams.”
The Bottle Greens will train again next Wednesday before switching to a Tuesday-Thursday night format for the final week of their preparations.
