AFTER a ground-breaking debut season, a leaner Nathan Brown is hungry to impress in his second season in a Collingwood jumper.

But Magpie fans need not worry about the youngster’s frame – he’s still an imposing 195cm and tips the scales around the 97kg mark.

However, aware of the need to be able to stay with the game’s best forwards for four quarters, Brown has spent much of his summer “dropping unwanted puppy fat”.

“I’ve focused on running and getting fitter while keeping the strength up,” Brown told collingwoodfc.com.au.

“I’m a lot stronger and a lot lighter over the ground.”

Brown burst onto the scene last year playing 23 matches, including both the Pies’ finals.

Coach Mick Malthouse knew he had something special with the emerging defender, not shying away from handing him the toughest tasks in football.

From Jonathan Brown one week to Matthew Richardson the next, the young Magpie grabbed an impressive array of scalps throughout the first half of the season.

While he flourished in his first year of senior AFL football, Brown admitted the task got tougher the longer the season progressed.

“Playing on guys that have got about five kilos on you and are a lot more experienced, it takes it out on the body,” he said.

“There was a bit of a dip in form towards the end of last season and, especially as a young kid dealing with all this stuff, it really takes a toll on you mentally.

“[It’s like you’re] coming into a new world. You’re trying to learn and take in everything you can while being exposed to something so big and it does make you mentally tired.”

He said the physical toll also became apparent. Whereas he might have been on the hip of an opponent earlier in the season, he found himself lagging a step behind in later rounds.

“I’ve really focused on trying to get as fit as I can this year and even tried to sacrifice a bit of body weight just to do that [keep up with opponents].”

But, as his pre-season training program suggests, he’ll do his best to avoid ever lowering his colours again.

He is not one to sulk when things don’t go to plan, as was the case the night Collingwood’s premiership dream ended last season.

Rather than shutting out the memories of the Pies’ loss to St Kilda – a night in which Nick Riewoldt got hold of the young defender – Brown is using it as motivation.

“That game I learnt a lot, especially playing in a final and playing on a great player … I may have dwelled on it for a week or two afterwards and was angry at myself.

“But I’ve learnt that everyone has these games that you can’t do anything about and you can’t dwell on them, you’ve got to move on, take the positives out, take the negatives out and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Brown’s attitude is one of a winner. While pleased with his progress in 2008, he seems just as eager to talk about his failures, for he knows it is from those rare matches that he has learned the most so far in his short career.

“You get some sort of fear, not a fear as in you fear that player, but a fear that you’re going to let your teammates down again,” he said.

“That drives you, remembering the last time I got smashed and just saying [to myself] ‘This isn’t going to happen, I’m going to do everything I can not to let it happen again’.”