No-one clearly told Campbell Brown AFL players needed to gain match fitness before starting their premiership campaign, showing his class and experience in his lively return to football as he lifted the SUNS in their 60-point crash collision course over a depleted Melbourne yesterday afternoon.   

The 193-game veteran wasted little time injecting himself into the contest, and looked determined to repay the faith shown in him by senior coach Guy McKenna – kicking two-of-his-three goals in the opening term.

“It was awesome to be back, and playing at the MCG and getting a win first up was great for me,” said Brown.

“The coaches went out on a limb by picking me, and while there was talk I might have been a bit underdone, they still backed me in and so I did my best to get amongst it early.”

Remarkably, Brown managed to run out the entire contest without experiencing any signs of soreness – crediting his punishing training program under Head Fitness Coach Paul Haines which ensured the experienced stalwart was ready to fire upon his recall to the senior team.

“I have been doing a power of work over training and surprising got through fine,” Brown said.

“I didn’t cramp and ran the game out pretty well so I can’t complain.”

It wasn’t a surprise that the dynamic of the forward structures changed dramatically with Brown around the goals, with the premiership defender added much-needed aggression and experience into a developing forwardline.

But with spearhead Charlie Dixon having been forced to watch on from the sidelines with an ankle injury, Brown was pleased to see his fellow goal-kickers take their game to another level.

“I thought it was a pretty healthy spread of goal-kickers, and most of our guys chipped in and delivered the ball really well to our forwards, so it was good to see everyone get a few opportunities,” Brown said.

The Western Bulldogs are poised to give the GC SUNS a great test at Metricon Stadium in their twilight showdown this Saturday, after the Bulldog’s competitive effort against North Melbourne – in which the southern AFL rival trailed by only 19-points heading into the final term against the Kangaroos before the game raced away from them in their 54-point loss at Etihad Stadium.

“It is another good opportunity for us, we play really well at Metricon Stadium and they played fairly well last week… so we’ll be approaching the match similar to how we went in against the Demons and really trying to get after them,” said Brown.

With this weekend’s Round 8 clash marked as “Family Round” at Metricon Stadium, Brown is expecting the Gold Coast to create sea of red and gold at the SUNS’ home ground after their milestone victory against the Demons.   

“The more wins we get the more support we should hopefully be getting on the Gold Coast,” Brown said.

“The fans up here are outstanding and really get behind the boys so hopefully we can get plenty into Metricon Stadium and get another win.”