At the height of his career in 2008, just a year before he would retire as a three-time premiership winner, Lions forward Jonathan Brown visited a young girl in her Brisbane home.

The girl was nine years old and had just undergone surgery on a brain tumour in her right frontal lobe. The meeting would have a profound effect on the girl’s life.

Fast forward 10 years later, and the pair met again last Friday afternoon at Ikon Park in Melbourne. The young girl, now 19 years old, is Gabby Collingwood, an AFLW player for the Brisbane Lions.

Brown, good friends with Lions Coach Craig Starcevich, was there to present a guernsey to Lions debutant Bella Ayre following the team’s Captains Run.

In doing so, he reconnected with Collingwood.

“I remember going to see a young girl,” Brown told lions.com.au.

“I didn’t make the connection once she started playing until my wife told me about the article [a Courier Mail article on Collingwood and Brown]. I thought ‘how cool is that.'"

Collingwood was equally taken aback to see him again after all this time.

“It was really good. I haven’t seen him for 10 years,” she said.

“We didn’t know about it and then he showed up to training. ‘Oh my god! There he is.’”

Collingwood celebrates with her teammates in the Round 1 victory over Adelaide. 

She credits Brown for encouraging her to play on.

“When he came to my house after the surgery when I was little, him coming just made me feel like ‘wow, I really want to be a part of AFL,’” she said.

“He really did inspire me to keep playing.”

Brown is equally touched.

“To have that sort of influence on somebody, I was very chuffed and very excited that Gabby was first and foremost able to survive her illness and go on to bigger and better things,” he said.

“Gabby has a new number 1 fan. I’ll be following her career very, very closely.”

For Collingwood, looking at the two photos of her and Browny and the decade that has passed, speaks volumes on what she has achieved.

“It is crazy. You see your pictures after the surgery and everything like that and it’s crazy how much of a rollercoaster it’s been,” she said.

“I’m glad to finally be here but it has sort of shaped what I do now.

“We didn’t really talk about footy. He just asked me general questions about how I was going and everything like that. It wasn’t really anything about AFL which I thought was nice, just a casual chat.”

To this day, Brown is still her hero.

“Of course, he isn’t the people’s champion for no reason."