Former Brisbane Lions champion Jonathan Brown has been hit by the Queensland floods, losing much of his memorabilia from his 250-game career and three premierships with the club.
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Brown, who is a breakfast presenter on Melbourne radio station Nova, returned to his farm property on the Queensland/New South Wales border after his radio duties last Friday, to clean up the damage from the aftermath of Cyclone Debbie.
Amidst the wreckage was a shed where Brown had stored the keepsakes of his career in removal boxes.
"Premiership jumpers and milestone game boots, which doesn't mean anything to anyone else, it's sentimental value, I thought it would good for the kids, sitting in a removal box mind you, it probably should have been out and on display or at least framed up, anyway, so that's gone. I was a little bit flat about that," Brown said on Nova on Monday.
But in a stroke of luck, Brown managed to at least recover his three premiership jumpers.
"I decided to go for a walk, walked down the creek, got about 500 metres down the creek, first thing I saw was a lifting platform from my gym, a wood thing you stand on when you do squats, that was in a tree, weighed probably about 200 kilos, that was in the tree.
"I got a little bit further down ... I saw the 2001 premiership jumper when we beat the Bombers. We kept walking down the track, the next thing I find, no not a jumper, my beer gas bottles, I've got the beer on tap ??? found the gas bottle with the beer line still attached, beautiful, we can replace that. I walked about a kilometre and no luck with anything else. I get home and the next day [former Sydney and Geelong player] Jason Mooney, he's a neighbour of mine, lives about a kilometre down the creek, he turns up with about eight jumpers, he's found the '02 jumper."
Brown said he was emotional when he realised some of his treasured mementos had been spared.
"I had a tear in me eye almost. I calmed down after that."
But there was more good news to come.
"You wouldn't bloody believe, last night I get a call from the farm, the father-in-law rings up, there was a letter or mail drop, there was a plastic bag left on our front door last night from a property about two kilometres down the creek. Found the third one."
