Who is the real Angus Brayshaw — the 2018 version or the 2019 version?
Both Angus Brayshaw and his football team were cast aside last year after a brilliant 2018 season. It leaves you wondering if the 24-year is a flash in the pan or the real deal, writes Mark Robinson.
Mark Robinson
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If there’s a player who has mirrored Melbourne’s past two seasons it is Angus Brayshaw.
In 2018, when the Demons bashed and crashed their way to the preliminary final weekend, Brayshaw shocked the footy world with a third placing in the Brownlow Medal.
In 2019, when the Demons surrendered to injury and uncertainty, Brayshaw finished eighth in the club best-and-fairest.
So, which is the real Angus Brayshaw?
The frontrunning flash in the pan midfielder or a player determined to get every ounce of talent out of his career?
He’s a fighter, we know that.
Several horrible concussions derailed his second and third seasons, before his eye-catching fourth season.
“Angus is highly competitive,” retired teammate Jordan Lewis says. “He would’ve taken the team’s performance last year, as well as his individual performance quite personally.”
He’d want to. Bluntly, the fall of Brayshaw last year should’ve embarrassed him.
Did he and others in his team get too comfortable and cocky after 2018?
It’s the low-hanging fruit assessment, but maybe the truth is too damning to ignore.
And just maybe the Brownlow Medal podium finish put Brayshaw in a comfort zone he wasn’t mature enough to deal with it.
“A lot of players came back after that 2018 season and thought it was just going to happen,” Lewis said.
“He’s probably one of those players.
“They now realise how hard this game is and last year, they got sat on their a---.”
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Lewis is a Brayshaw fan. He tells a story of a training session in his first pre-season at the club in 2017.
Every player had to select a teammate in a drill that required one-on-one contested work.
It came to Brayshaw’s choice.
Lewis thought the then 20-year-old would take the easy option of picking another young player.
Instead, he chose the combative Nathan Jones, the captain.
“That’s how he operates,” Lewis said. “He loves a challenge, he’s a competitor.”
Brayshaw and Melbourne start their season of redemption against West Coast in Perth, the place where Melbourne bodies are still buried after their 2018 preliminary final shellacking.
Everyone will be watching — what else is there to watch on a Sunday afternoon in the current climate — and Brayshaw is one of the players we’ll be watching closely.
He’s no dill, Brayshaw.
He knows that we know it’s a massive year ahead for him.
His father Mark Brayshaw, a former North Melbourne player and current coaches association boss, knows him better than just about anyone.
He’s supportive and loving, but he’s also a footy head and understands the demands of consistency of performance.
“As a kid he was always very, very determined and competitive, but so what,” Mark said.
“Now he’s in an environment where the stakes are high. He’s played 80-odd games and (Clayton) Oliver and (Christian) Petracca and him .... I can’t wait to watch them play.”
He’s observed the results of and response to the damning 2019 season.
“I’ll tell you what I have seen, he’s as fit as I’ve ever seen,” Mark said. “His body shape has changed dramatically. He has responded to the new regimen of training.”
Asked about the character of his son, he said: “He’s very proud. He felt really embarrassed first of all about the precipitous fall of the team and his own role within that.
“He was really upset about how poorly the team went.
“He’s a young man (just 24) guy navigating his way through it still, but it was a hell of a roller coaster last two years.
“Some of the footy community were thinking it’s the same old Melbourne and that has stuck in his craw since the season unravelled last year, unquestionably.
“He and quite a few of his teammates are in very good physical shape and mentally have got a nasty taste in their mouth.”
Brayshaw’s numbers fell from 2018 to 2019, but they did not fall off the cliff.
He lost four disposals (26 to 22), gave up an average 100m gained and even his centre-bounce attendances were barely effected.
Is it case of him being one of those players who play well in a good team and poorly in a so-so team? That’s an assessment no player would like.
Booted from the midfield to the wing about Round 6 last year, Brayshaw will be expected to own the centre-square position this year.
With recruits Ed Langdon and Adam Tomlinson adding speed and gut-running to the wings this year, the likely preferred starting on-ball brigade will be Brayshaw, Max Gawn, Clayton Oliver and Jack Viney.
“People have seen how good Angus can be,” Lewis said. “What he has to work at is finding that consistency. But he is a serious talent.”
Former Melbourne great David Schwarz sees courage in Brayshaw.
Schwarz was among many who believed Brayshaw’s career would end during the concussion crisis and who admired the fightback season of 2018.
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Like all observers, Schwarz can’t pinpoint exactly what went wrong last year.
“Last year I thought he was injured at the start and then fell out of favour with the coaches in relation to his speed through the midfield, that they lost faith in his ability to find and deliver he ball, and his pace out of the stoppage,” Schwarz said.
“Did he lose that killer instinct?
“I don't know, but what I do know is, after watching him come back from his knocks, you write this bloke off at your own peril,” he said.
“He’s determined, he’s got more courage in his little finger than most players and he will bounce back.
“He’s a tough bastard and I love that.”