Former Melbourne captain Garry Lyon says Ben Brown’s trade value is the lowest it has been in years, suggesting the star North Melbourne forward could’ve fetched a first round draft pick at the trade table in previous years.
The 27-year-old is out of contract at season’s end, with manager Adam Ramanauskas telling ABC Radio Brown is no closer to re-signing for 2021 and beyond.
Lyon said the tall forward’s form, which saw him dropped last week before being recalled in Round 10, made assessing what he would be worth on the open market an interesting proposition.
“His (trade) currency is as low as it has been since he debuted,” Lyon said on SEN.
“With this knee injury now, you just look at it and wonder. If they were eyeing the market, and I don’t know if they were, but if they were thinking about it then would’ve been thinking a late first round pick for a guy who has contended for three Coleman medals in the last three years but I think it’s some way away from that now.”
Brown picked up a knee injury in the opening minutes of Wednesday night’s loss to Geelong but Lyon said all the same issues he’s been displaying this season were apparent in the clash, even if he only played less than quarter.
“It’s been an interesting couple of weeks with him at North Melbourne,” Lyon said.
“They dropped him in the end, there’s no VFL obviously and Rhyce Shaw said it was a circuit-breaker, was three or four days enough as he didn’t look like he addressed anything albeit in a very short period of time he was out of the ground.
“The amount of times he ran at the footy and got pushed under the ball, it’s the same issues he’s had to deal with over the journey.
“He looks set for an extended stay on the sidelines now, you’d have to hope (Nick) Larkey can get back and get back quickly as they looked quite impotent going forward, especially earlier in the game."
Brown has kicked just eight goals from nine games this season, after booting over 60 goals in each of the last three seasons.