Fresh from an equal career-best haul of four goals last Saturday night against Gold Coast, Lions forward Aaron Cornelius says he’s benefiting from playing alongside one of the game’s greatest centre half-forwards in Jonathan Brown.

Cornelius, who has played just 15 matches since being recruited to the Club in 2008, identified Brown’s incredible work rate as a feature that has helped separate his skipper from the rest.

“I’ve been lucky enough to play alongside Browny once or twice previously, and his work rate is unbelievable,” Cornelius said.

“Kicking 500 goals in the AFL is an incredible feat, and he’s an incredible player.”

“It’s great to play with Daniel Merrett and Jonathan Brown up forward - you can learn a lot from those guys.”

While Cornelius has already proven to be a dangerous weapon inside the 50m arc, it was his work further up the field as an effective lead-up option that was arguably most impressive against the Suns.

But the 21 year-old Tasmanian remained humble in his assessment of his most complete AFL performance to date.

“I think I was in the right place at the right time a few times,” he said.

“I was lucky enough to get up the ground a bit more and take a few marks. I think it’s the first time in about 3-4 years that I’ve played to that intensity. It’s exciting to be able to do that, but there is still a long way to go.”

The task is set to become increasingly tougher for Cornelius and his Lions team-mates, with matches against reigning Premiers Geelong (Round 5), undefeated Essendon (Round 6) and 2010 Premiers Collingwood (Round 7) awaiting them over the next three weeks.

“It certainly doesn’t (get much tougher than that),” Cornelius said.

“But they’re the challenges you have to take on if you want to make the eight.”

“We’ve got Geelong this week and they’re the benchmark - they’re the Premiers. But anything can happen…”