Lewis Brown's brilliant career on the up and up

The sole South Islander in the Warriors' starting lineup has benefited from bulking up and sweating and swotting at second row summer school.

This time last year Lewis Brown was a hopeful hooker. The Belfast boy had joined the Auckland club on a one-year contract via Sydney's lower leagues and had set himself a goal of getting a first-grade game.

But Brown's 2009 season exceeded even his own expectations. He had just one game in the pre-season trials series but broke into the matchday squad mid-season.

The former scrumhalf and centre, who cut his rugby league teeth at Marist-Western Suburbs, the Riccarton Knights and the Canterbury Bulls, found himself packing down in the backrow.

A woeful season for the Warriors as a club turned into a personal triumph for Brown. "I played the last 15 games on the trot in the second row." He also dotted down for three tries.

But the 23-year-old knew he was far from the finished article. Hence his hard work over the summer break.

"This time last year I didn't even know whether I would get to play in the NRL. Now, this weekend, I'm starting in the second row against the Gold Coast," he said. "This year I've had a good off-season under my belt, I've been training in the back row and know more about the position. I've put on a few kilos and I've played in all three [pre-season] trials.

"Ivy [coach Ivan Cleary] and Tony [assistant coach Tony Iro] are pretty happy with my off-season. I've put on 2 kilograms of muscle. Last year I was running around at about 96 [kilos] now I'm around 98 or 99."

Brown went to Cleary and Iro – a former wing turned second rower – and Logan Swann, "who's played a lot of games [almost 200] in the back row for this club", for advice on how to expand his game.

In his rookie NRL season he'd been content to "tuck the ball up and carry it forward", suck in several tacklers and make his metres to set up the next play-the-ball.

But he's now been encouraged to use his natural ball skills more. "Ivy talked to me about that. He said, `you played at hooker and in the halves when you were younger'. He's keen for me to pass the ball a little more so I've been working on that in the off-season." Brown discovered in the three trial matches that "a ball player can hold a few more people off and create opportunities for the outside people". He hopes to carry that approach on to the NRL arena.

He knows he will have to in tip-top form to hold his place at the Warriors who have burgeoning back-row depth. Brown packs down in the second row with Ben Matulino on Sunday with stand-in skipper Micheal Luck at loose forward.

But new club captain Simon Mannering, still recovering from a hamstring injury, is waiting in the wings and Brown said there "a lot of young guys coming through to push for places", including Sione Lousi, who could make his NRL debut against the Titans.

The Warriors had "adapted now" to the captaincy change with Mannering, 23, taking over from Steve Price. Brown doesn't anticipate any problems. "We're all professional athletes and things happen in the game all the time."

He said Mannering is highly respected and the Warriors will "definitely miss his workrate" on Sunday. "He plays the full 80 minutes."

Brown has huge respect for the Titans' "very experienced pack", led by co-captain Luke Bailey. "They've got two good backrowers in [Anthony] Laffranchi and [Mark] Minichiello plus Ashley Harrison and one of the best dummy half runners in Nathan Friend. But when you look at our forward pack, we've got a lot of athleticism and enthusiasm there. We'll be right."

Consistency is Brown's aim for 2010.

"Hopefully, I can play good football week-in and week-out, whether I start or come off the bench. As long as I'm in the [match-day] 17, I'll be happy."

But he has another personal goal. He was called into the Kiwis' training squad late last year to prepare for the Four-Nations tournament in Europe. Brown didn't make the cut but said he was stoked to be noticed by the selectors.

"The goal this year is to make the Four-Nations squad at the end of the year or even having enough good form to play in the Anzac test [in May]. My ultimate dream is to put on the black jumper and have the Kiwis' emblem on my chest. But first and foremost, I've got to the job for the Warriors."

  McKinnon outD4

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