After falling out of favour with North Melbourne in 2008, Leigh Brown played a remarkable 23 games for Collingwood in 2009. He has now amassed 204 AFL matches across 10 seasons.
Implemented as a utility covering both ends of the ground, Brown was rarely used in one position for the full duration of the match.
Brown proved extremely valuable throughout the season as a back-up ruckman. He provided relief to Josh Fraser and Cameron Wood which led to a career-high total in hitouts with 79.
At 27 years of age, Brown averaged a career-high 3.0 tackles a game in his 10th season of senior football.
The arrival of Darren Jolly at the end of the 2009 season means Brown will be contending for a key position down back or up forward next year.
2009 highlights
Round 10 v Port Adelaide: Arguably his best match for the club, Brown spent the majority of his time up forward and finished the match with two majors. He was marked by Troy Chaplin for most of the day and racked up 18 possessions and five marks. Brown’s open field tackling was particularly impressive as he finished the day with seven tackles.
Mark Neeld: Leigh played every game bar two and was used in a number of different roles - forward, to help out in the ruck and also as a key defender. He was drafted as a utility player for exactly that reason and we were very pleased with Leigh's output for the season.
2009 AFL statistics
| G | K | H | D | M | G | B | T | C |
| 23 | 5.4/84.7% | 5.4/84.7% | 10.8 | 3.3 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 3.0 | 0.8 |
