At a time when clubs throw top-10 picks at athletic but still pimply callow boys of promise North used a lowly third-round pick on a mature player. Bryce Lewis was the recruiter then and Brown will rate as not only his best pick but one of the best draft picks we have seen at any club in recent years for how little was given up and for how much they got in return. Consider these key-position players who were all taken in the top 10 in the past five AFL drafts: Paddy McCartin (pick 1), Josh Schache (2), Sam Weideman (9), Harry McKay (10), Peter Wright (8), Tom Boyd (1) and Darcy Moore (father-son, 9). Clubs commit serious picks to key-position players because they are so structurally important to them, but as the above list testifies it is a more imprecise science than picking midfielders. They are speculative stocks as against the blue-chip midfielders. “Nothing makes you more nervous as a recruiter than picking a tall player in the first round,” one recruiter said.

“How many midfielders have been taken in the top 10 that don’t work out? Compare that to talls.” The quirk of the quirky Ben Brown was that an injury that recruiters feared would harm his career has been the injury that has helped make his career. By prolonging his arrival in the game, that injury has helped him make it in the game. In his TAC Cup year, Brown did his knee. He was on the radar of all clubs at the time as a promising tall, but he played more ruck than forward as an 18-year-old. But his knee reco cost him a chance at being drafted that year. Collingwood were interested. They had a family connection to Brown through his uncle James Manson, the key forward and second ruck in the 1990 premiership team. ''Charlie'' was a cult figure at Collingwood for his unorthodox kicking style that was jarring to the purist but extremely effective. He was also an excellent contested mark.

His nephew has similar characteristics where his style made recruiters think he was a bit ragged and messy as a player so orthodox football aesthetics would not recommend him as a player. He is a salutary reminder to look at results not style. “He was a bit ungainly and awkward. A bit messy,” another recruiter said. Collingwood recruiters Derek Hine and Jason Taylor met Brown and Manson at Manson’s bayside graphic design office and discussed with the pair the option of Ben coming to Melbourne, where Collingwood could help with his rehab and he could live with his uncle and study. They promised to rookie-list him the next year. He declined. He thought if they liked him that much they should rookie him straight away. They declined. So Brown stayed in Tassie, played for Glenorchy, then the next year came to Melbourne and played VFL for the then North Melbourne-affiliated Werribee.

He could have been drafted in his under-18 year and wasn’t. He was again not drafted after his Glenorchy year but at the end of his season at Werribee he was finally picked by North at 47. A recruiter at another club who did not wish to be named, confirmed that his club’s doctors ruled Brown out on medical grounds. They had a pick earlier than where North picked him, but the doctors put a line through his name. His is a club still screaming out for a key forward. Gun forward: North Melbourne's Ben Brown. Credit:AAP “We have all underestimated him,” one veteran recruiter said. Clearly for him to slide through to 47, recruiters had their doubts. One was worried that he would go off the ground looking seriously injured in games several times but then always come back - and that raised a query on his resilience. He was a kid - there has been no sign of that at AFL level – which is a reminder of the danger of judging immature players.

“He always looked a bit mechanical and he still can a bit, but he is very effective,” one recruiter said. “He played a lot in the ruck as an under-18 and you were not sure if he could play forward. Well, we all got that wrong,” another said. He was available to Greater Western Sydney as a previously nominated player that they could have priority access to, but they had Jon Patton and Jeremy Cameron on their list and their priorities were elsewhere. He had recorded a 16 beep test result, but not all clubs were aware of his enormous aerobic capacity. “The game has evolved to him where he has a huge motor and people probably didn’t realise and, at the time, key forwards didn’t need a big motor because they stayed at home,” a recruiter said.

He has enormous reach and takes the ball at its highest point so, as a key forward with an ability to run, his marking is elite. He can be quite straight-line in his leading but that is only a criticism if you don’t get the ball, and Brown gets the ball. When he is able to get up and down the ground and get in front of his defender on a lead they have no real chance to spoil him because of his size and reach. One recruiter said the knee injury helped his career by delaying his arrival in the game. Yes the game swung to him in that time but it is more than that. Brown was 20 when drafted and so in his 21st year in his first season. He arrived in the game more akin to an American college player who begins his NFL career in his early 20s when he is ready to play. How many of those players listed earlier have had judgments made on their careers after two and three years in the system, and yet they are not yet 21?