Three-time premiership icon Jonathan Brown says Michael Turner was a ‘pioneer’ of junior talent pathways

A three-time premiership legend has paid tribute to the late Geelong Falcons talent manager who helped turn him into a modern great.

Michael Turner with Falcons players Hugh Goddard, Patrick McCartin and Jackson Nelson in 2014. Picture: Mitch Bear

A flint-hard taskmaster, a fierce advocate and ultimately a pioneer of junior talent pathways.

Three-time premiership star and Brisbane Lions icon Jonathan Brown was shocked to receive a phone call from former Collingwood forward and broadcaster Brian Taylor earlier this week.

Taylor’s great friend, Geelong team of the century winger and long term Falcons talent manager Michael Turner, had died after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer.

Turner, who passed on Monday at the age of 70, had played his role in turning Brown into the modern day great he would become.

South Warrnambool product Brown, who played his first game of senior footy with the Roosters at 15, came through the famous Falcons footy factory in the late 1990s before being taken with pick 30 by the Lions through the father-son rule.

Jonathan Brown in July, 2001. Picture: AAP Image/Dave Hunt.

While the Falcons have gone on to produce 134 youngsters into AFL players, Turner, who also hailed from the same southwest Victorian town, made it pretty clear to a young Brown he had to pull his finger out if he wanted to make it.

A talented cricketer, who dreamt of one day opening the bowling in a Boxing Day Test, Brown had reportedly missed a session or two of Falcons pre-season due to his cricketing commitments.

He recalls Turner and his father Brian having a solid barney over the younger Brown’s sporting priorities.

Jonathan Brown’s father Brian during his Fitzroy days in 1979.

“The old man was big on you play footy during footy season and cricket during cricket season,” Brown said, who tried to make his dual-sporting days last as long as possible.

“I might not have turned up to one or two pre-season sessions (due to) playing cricket.

“Mick wasn’t quite happy with that, and dad wasn’t quite happy with Mick’s response, so the two boys had good solid argument.

“I thought: ‘who in the hell is this bloke telling me what to do?’ And I think the old man thought the same thing.

“But very quickly we grew a strong bond.”

Brown can distinctly recall Turner’s mannerisms: standing by a whiteboard with his “agenda items” on a Thursday night at Highton, slowly wiping them off one by one, or stroking his goatee.

Turner, in 2004, was immersed in the Geelong Falcons program for 25 years.

“It was a bit of a baptism of fire,” Brown recalled of those early days with the Falcons.

“He was a pretty hard taskmaster, Micky T.

“He had that scary facade, certainly to us young blokes from the country, I think we copped the wrath of him the first or second game when we got belted.

“It was just before the Vic Country selections, and Micky said none of us would make it, that’s how bad we were going, we were bloody terrible.

“He put the fear of god into us, Micky.

“The boys were quite fond of impersonating him.”

The AFL Hall of Famer can recall Turner hitching up his “strides nice and high” before delivering a spray.

“He’d give you both barrels,” he said.

Brown wrestles with Geelong’s Matthew Scarlett in 2004. Picture: AAP Image/Stuart McEvoy.

However, Turner would go from fierce critic to ambassador, especially when Brown found himself facing a lengthy suspension after an incident in his final TAC match.

Turner would be in the front lines of the tribunal “fighting for me”, he recalled.

“I suppose he always pushed us really hard because he knew the level we could reach, he was a great advocate for all of us boys,” he said.

“As much as he’d give me a bit of a cook behind the scenes, he’d support me at the tribunal.

“He wanted me to start my AFL career on the right note.”

Brown firmly believes that Turner didn’t quite get the kudos he deserved.

“Just one of footy’s great characters and probably did a hell of a lot of work which went unreported as well,” he said.

“Just a real pioneer of junior pathways … especially for us country boys in the southwest belt of Victoria.

“A great supporter and a great advocate for all us Falcons boys, I think he had a soft spot for the country boys as much as he used to think we were all third-worlders (laughs).”

Originally published as Three-time premiership icon Jonathan Brown says Michael Turner was a ‘pioneer’ of junior talent pathways