JONATHAN Brown had no idea that friend, mentor and coach Leigh Matthews would quit as Lions senior coach, but denied it would have changed his mind to commit to the club for the rest of his career.

The silver lining on a tumultuous day for the Lions was spearhead Brown's decision to re-sign with the club that helped him become a triple premiership player before he turned 22.

The star forward revealed he agreed on Saturday to a new multi-season deal, just a day before Matthews told the Lions he was ending his 10-year tenure with one year to run on his contract.

Although disappointed Matthews won't finish the last season of his three-year deal, Brown denied he was fazed at being given no indication of the surprise resignation.

"It was going to have no effect (on re-signing)," Brown said.

"I was going to re-sign so I was comfortable with the fact he was coach.

"It was done on the weekend, I found out this morning (of the resignation).

"We weren't expecting it. Leigh obviously had 12 months to go on his deal, so yeah, it was a shock."

Brown, arguably the game's hottest property, wouldn't detail specifics of his new deal, only to say he'd agreed to terms before the 61-point loss to the Sydney Swans on Saturday night.

Neither would the club break its policy of keeping silent on player contract lengths but it did send out a short press release hailing Brown as a Lion for life.

The Lions co-captain turns 27 next month so club's confirmation he recommitted "effectively for the rest of his playing career" suggests at least a four-year deal.

The 2007 Coleman medallist reportedly wanted a five-year contract to end his career at the Lions, with Collingwood presenting the biggest danger to its hopes of sewing him up as a one-club man.

Brown credited Matthews as the person who had the biggest influence on his professional career, which started at 18 after being recruited from Warrnambool and the Geelong Falcons under 18s.

"He had a massive influence," he said. "He was the bloke that gave me the opportunity.

"He recruited me up here under the father and son rule and then gave me the opportunity to play centre half-forward which is always a difficult position to crack, especially as a younger guy.

"He gave me the confidence to play it and stuck by me. I didn't get a kick in my first year of footy. He gave me that role and made me believe and made me become a better player, so I owe a lot to him.

"There's a bit of disappointment there, a bit of sadness, because Leigh's been my only coach, and he's been a fantastic teacher and a mentor, a coach and more importantly a friend."

Brown shared Matthews' optimism about the future of the Lions despite the club's disappointing end to the season when they spurned a genuine top-four shot by losing seven of their last nine matches, sparked by a one-point defeat to wooden-spooners Melbourne.

He preferred to remain removed from discussions on Matthews' successor, preferring to concentrate on the responsibility of reversing the club's fortunes.

"I just know as a player we have a responsibility to get ourselves up and have a good pre-season and get back to September," Brown said.

"Hopefully all the players are feeling that as well, there's a bit of burning in the guts going on over the next eight weeks of the holidays."