When Ben Brown took the punt to come to Victoria to play with Werribee in the VFL, the Tasmanian had no idea if it would pay off. As it turns out, neither did his then coach, Scott West.

With two ruckmen at his disposal already and several tall forwards to choose from, West encouraged Brown to come to the club and admits embellishing his chances of getting a game just a little.

"I said to him 'of course, yeah, I believe you'll get a regular game.' And he doesn't know this, but I wasn't sure how it would happen," West told The Age.

"I knew he had all of the attributes he'd need to play, but I wasn't sure how we were going to balance things and whether we'd be able to play him consistently. But he'd had some injuries, and you could tell he was a really good kid. I wanted to give him a bit of hope, I guess. I wanted to make sure he came back."

Looking back further, Brown, a basketballer, was invited to join the under-18 state program and his agility, coordination and general athleticism caught the eye of his first footy coach Matthew Armstrong.

There were many setbacks in the way of niggling injuries, but the biggest was a knee reconstruction which cast doubts over Brown’s durability. A move to Glenorchy from Devonport was the next step in his football journey.

“…he'd worked unbelievably hard in rehab," James Wiggins, the club's general manager said.

"I have a feeling that regardless of whether Ben got drafted or whether he had to go and do something else, he was always going to know what the future held for him and be in charge of what happened in his life. I think he was always going to go and find things out, not leave any big questions out there."

The biggest leap though was his decision to leave his parents and five younger brothers to join Werribee and reignite his dream to play AFL. With the likes of Majak Daw, Daniel Currie, Mason Wood, Ben Warren and Ben McKinley in the forward-line, Brown had some work to do according to West. But playing alongside elite players and battling for his position week in, week out, held him in good stead.

As a result he was again invited to the Draft Combine and soon after, his name was called out by North Melbourne. Less than a year later, he booted the club into a semi-final with a thrilling four goal performance.

"He's only going to get better than what we saw last Saturday night. He's going to get a lot better, and that's not only because of the amazing things he can do," said Armstrong.

"He's got that inner, burning desire to be a good player and to work even harder than he has to work. I really believe we haven't seen anything yet."