St Patrick's Nick Brown says the biggest pre-season of his career is behind his breakout form in Cricket Albury-Wodonga Provincial.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Apart from clearly the association's best bat in Belvoir's South African import Nic Whitelaw, who's averaging 70 from only 12 matches, Brown is the only other player in the top 20 run-scorers with under 16 innings.
He has 467 runs at 35.5.
"At the end of last year I had a couple of hard truths in terms of if you want to put the work in and I sat down with 'Scam' (coach Liam Scammell) at the start of this season and came up with what we wanted to get out of it," he revealed.
"We've been doing the extras and that really set me up, it's paid off.
"With soccer commitments before, I haven't committed to two nights of cricket training per week, so I haven't given it my best shot, so this year it's been commitment and hard work."
Brown is a unique sportsperson, at least in this era, playing three major sports during the calendar year.
He's the captain of Boomers FC in the Albury Wodonga Football Association and also plays for Hume League outfit Brocklesby-Burrumbuttock.
Given the overlap of sports in the modern era, Brown was quizzed if he was willing to quit at least one.
"Not at the moment, still loving it and I guess while you're still in your mid-20s, you try and maximise as much as you can," he replied.
"I guess at some stage I might have to, especially the way soccer and footy is going, they're 10 months a year commitments, they're not six or seven months.
"But both codes have been really accommodating and I couldn't be more thankful."
Brown was also asked which was his strongest sport.
"I think, ability-wise, cricket is my sport but, at the same time, I've committed the most time to soccer in the past four or five years," he responded.
"I don't think I've got a heap of natural ability in soccer, but was willing to put the work in, so had better results, compared to cricket."
Brown was among the leading run-scorers in January, prior to missing four matches while overseas with great mate and fellow all-round sportsperson Noah Spiteri on a soccer trip to the UK.
Twenty-six year-old Brown is a Liverpool fanatic and saw wins over fierce rivals Chelsea, as well as Burnley.
"Getting to sit in the Kop (among Liverpool supporters) was pretty hard to top and singing 'You'll Never Walk Alone', that's probably the highlight," he enthused.
"It was absolute goosebumps and even exceeded the already high expectations."
Unfortunately, Spiteri wasn't so lucky with his Tottenham Hotspur outfit, playing out a draw against Everton and then falling to Wolves.
From the highs of Liverpool's Anfield, Brown's focus turns to St Pat's home in the final round on Saturday.
The Patties are eighth and need to beat Tallangatta, as well as requiring East Albury and Albury around them to lose, to have any hope of pushing into the top six.
"(Captain) Dean Nicholson has been running the numbers and I think what we got out of it is that it is possible, but it's going to be something special," he suggested.
Elsewhere, East is home to Belvoir, Baranduda hosts North Albury, Wodonga is away to Lavington, Corowa travels to Wodonga Raiders and Albury is home to New City.
The ladder, after round 19 of 20, is: Belvoir 99, North Albury 78, Lavington 72, Corowa 69, Wodonga Raiders 69; Tallangatta 60 (run quotient 1.269); East Albury 60 (1.036), St Pat's 54 (1.106), Albury 54 (0.961), New City 39, Wodonga 18, Baranduda 12
