Brisbane’s Jonathan Brown is excited by the possibility of sharing the Lions’ attack with fellow star forward Lance Franklin if the AFL club can pull off a recruiting coup.
Lions football manager Dean Warren confirmed on the weekend Brisbane are among the suitors for in-demand Hawthorn free agent Franklin, who has put off contract talks until post-season.
Brown, 31, said while the club ultimately needed someone to replace him as Brisbane’s attacking king-pin, in the short-term he and Franklin could form a dangerous duo.
“I’d love to see that, how good would that be?” the Lions co-captain told the AFL website.
“Hopefully we’ll have plenty of money in the salary cap, obviously Buddy would be a big name, but hopefully to recruit some big names going forward.
“We’ve had to rebuild over the past two or three years but we’ve got some exciting young players and we’ll have a bit of money to spend.
“We’d love to have Buddy Franklin up here.
“Obviously I’m getting a bit long in the tooth in the forward line so it would be nice for a big star key forward to come along and just take control of Brisbane’s sporting landscape.”
While Brown has started this season modestly, with 10 goals from six games, five of those against Gold Coast, the triple-premiership forward said that was no surprise after a limited pre-season.
“I thought the first month or six weeks of the season was going to be a bit of a struggle,” he said.
“But I’m starting to find a bit of fitness, starting to feel not too bad out there, I’m pulling up alright.
“I obviously don’t move as well as I did in my mid-20s, we’d all love to be able to do that.
“But I’m still getting out there and feeling not too bad.
“I’m expecting to hopefully get better and better each week.
“As a whole team we need to lift, as a senior group we all need to lift and that includes myself.”