Collingwood premiership player Leigh Brown has announced he will retire from playing AFL football at the conclusion of the 2011 season.
 
Brown, 29, is in his 12th year of AFL football having spent the past three seasons with the Magpies, and has played 242 games and booted 136 goals.
 
He made the announcement to his teammates at the Westpac Centre on Thursday morning.
 
Brown, who comes from Heyfield in south eastern Victoria, was originally drafted from the Gippsland Power by Fremantle with the fifth overall pick in the 1999 draft.
 
Brown played 62 games in three seasons with the Dockers before moving to North Melbourne where he played 118 games from 2003-08.
 
After being delisted by the Kangaroos, Brown was drafted by the Magpies with the 73rd overall pick in the 2008 draft, and has played 61 games for Collingwood.
 
He was an integral part of the Magpies’ 2010 grand final triumph in a season in which he played 19 games and kicked 21 goals as a powerful key position option and back-up ruckman.
 
Earlier this year Brown became just the second player in the history of VFL/AFL football to play 50 games with three clubs, after Glenn Coleman (Fitzroy, Sydney and Western Bulldogs).
 
Brown is undertaking the AFLCA coaching course, having spent the past three years in a coaching role with the Calder Cannons under 18 team and the Victoria Metro under 17 side. He has ambitions to pursue a coaching career at the elite level.
 
LEIGH BROWN PROFILE
Born: 23 Feb 1982
From: Heyfield (VIC)
Height: 194cm
Weight: 102kg
Junior clubs: Heyfield FC/Gippsland Power U18
Previous AFL clubs: Fremantle, North Melbourne
AFL career: 242 games, 136 goals (Fremantle 2000-02, 63 games, 20 goals; North Melbourne 2003-08, 118 games, 64 goals; Collingwood 2009-11, 61 games, 52 goals)