Brown has been the Club’s focal point in attack for the better part of the past decade, but as he reaches the twilight of his career, it has become more and more evident that his successor needs to step forward.
Post-merger, the Lions have been blessed with spearheads of the highest quality in Brown, Alastair Lynch, and Daniel Bradshaw.
All three sit among the Club’s top five all-time greatest goal-kickers, alongside Fitzroy’s Jack Moriarty and Bernie Quinlan.
So whoever replaces Brown will have big shoes to fill.
But an opportunity now exists for that player to emerge and put a deposit on the full-forward position for the future.
Jordan Lisle (six career goals) seems first in line at the moment given he’s played alongside Brown for the past three matches, while Aaron Cornelius (35 goals), Sam Michael (zero goals) and Marco Paparone (four goals) are among other candidates.
The task won’t be easy for the incumbent, with tough matches against Collingwood and Fremantle to come.
And history already suggests that the Lions have struggled without Brown in the past.
Since 2007, the three-time Club Champion has played 122 matches for 55 wins, three draws and 64 losses, at a winning percentage of 45%.
Although the figure is far from positive, it gets much worse when he’s not there.
Of Brown’s 21 missed matches over the past six seasons, the Lions have won just two – against Melbourne (2012) and Gold Coast (2011) – for a winning percentage of just 9.5%.
However, the Lions will take confidence from their first three NAB Cup matches this year, all of which resulted in wins without their Co-Captain.
In fact, the Lions looked less predictable at times with a make-shift forward line, which enabled the likes of Rohan Bewick, Dayne Zorko, Josh Green and James Polkinghorne to hit the scoreboard more regularly.
All will be revealed at approximately 6:30pm this evening, when the Lions announce their Round 10 team to face Collingwood this Friday night at the Gabba.
