But after day one at North Melbourne, the 21-year-old realised just how much room he still has to develop. Stacked against 40 new team-mates, the value of experience was clear.
"Strength is probably the main one for me," Brown told NMFC.com.au when asked about his areas for improvement.
"Being a 21-year-old perhaps I'm a little bit further down the track than the 18-year-old's, but I feel like a young bloke coming into the system.
"I asked a few of the blokes what their kind of strength indicators were at and mine are a fair bit down at this stage, so I think I'll have to work on it a fair bit, but I'm looking forward to it."”
PRESS PLAY above to watch the interview and vision of Ben Brown training | YouTube
After a night's sleep affected by a mix of nerves and adapting to the trying conditions, Brown was quickly into the action on Wednesday.
He and fellow draftee Trent Dumont joined in the skills session at Brigham Young University from the get-go, only sitting out for the full-ground drills.
It was a testing initiation.
"I was blowing after doing a couple of the kicking drills, but I suppose that's just the altitude.
I feel like I've got a bit of work to do as far as the fitness is concerned, but I'm just looking forward to pitting myself against the other blokes.
"I like to think I perform better when I've got someone ahead of me that I need to chase, so the other tall guys like Drew Petrie, Aaron Black who I've obviously got a bit of work to catch up to. That's really intriguing for me and I'm looking forward to taking up the challenge."”
As a developing tall it can be a long road to a debut, but with a couple of years in the VFL system under his belt, Brown has a head-start on similar types taken in the Draft.
"The first goal for me is to get a game in the ones, and that's what I'm going to be pushing for. I've always seen it as, 'sky's the limit' for myself.
"Obviously it's going to be tough, there are a lot of very good players at the club. I have got a lot of work to do but, 'sky's the limit' and I'll play wherever the teams need me to.”
