Another four-goal effort from Ben Brown has seen him overtake Lance Franklin and jump to the top of the Coleman Medal leaderboard.
Brown’s four-goal blitz in the first-half of the clash with the Hawks has him sitting on 19 goals after five games, one clear of Sydney’s Lance Franklin, and three ahead of Hawthorn’s Luke Breust, and the Giants’ Jeremy Cameron.
Despite his rapid improvement over the past few seasons, few would have expected Brown to have started 2018 in the fashion that he has.
After being kept goalless in the torrid conditions in Round 1, Brown has returned goal hauls of 6, 4, 5, and 4 in the last four weeks, highlighting his remarkable consistency in front of the big sticks.
The 200-centimetre key-forward has improved year on year with his goal output, and has become an ever-reliable kick for goal.
In 2016, Brown kicked 41 goals from 22 games, with a shot accuracy of 69.5 per cent. Of players to have kicked 40+ goals, only Cyril Rioli (78.3%), Tim Membrey (71%), Eddie Betts (70.8%) and Tory Dickson (70.2%) could claim a better accuracy when kicking for goal.
With Drew Petrie leaving North Melbourne at the end of 2016, the primary goal-kicking onus fell on Brown, and he duly delivered. His goal output increased with the added responsibility, kicking 63 goals. Perhaps surprisingly given the added attention, his kicking accuracy barely waivered (67.7%).
Receiving extra attention from opposition defenders in 2018, Brown has remarkably lifted both his output and his accuracy.
With a record of 19.4 from his shots at goal in 2018, Brown is recording a shot accuracy of 82.6 per cent, second only to Luke Breust (84.2%) for players to have kicked at least 10 goals.
With the exemption of the Round 1 clash in Cairns, which was almost played underwater, Brown has stood up when North has needed him in 2018.
Against St Kilda, with the game lacking quality and end-product, Brown came to the fore.
Fox Sports’ Riley Beveridge summed it up nicely.
“Few matches have needed an injection of quality quite like this one,” he wrote.
“Fortunately for North Melbourne, that’s something Ben Brown possesses in droves.”
It’s not just Brown’s skill that gained plaudits though, with his outstanding work rate now being noticed externally.
“In a Good Friday contest lacking in skill and scoring, North Melbourne’s clash with St Kilda always looked like it could come down to who was more willing,” Beveridge said.
“And Brown might be the most willing of the lot.”
In Round 4 in his home state of Tasmania, Brown became the first North Melbourne player since Wayne Carey to outscore an opposition team, when he kicked 5.1.31 to Carlton’s 4.6.30.
Less than a quarter of the way through the season, the number 50 has already tallied up 19 goals, and is on target to smash his personal record of 63 last year.
