After spending most of his first season at the club on the sidelines, Sydney Swans defender Alex Brown is shaping up as one of the club’s big improvers in 2013.

The 19-year-old, who was cruelled by ongoing hip issues in 2012, has backed up a solid pre-season with strong performances in the Swans reserves’ opening four matches of the season, playing predominantly as a tall defender.

Now with fitness under his belt, Brown says he has put a disappointing start to his time at the Swans behind him.

“It’s great now and I’m really looking forward to getting out onto the field every week,” Brown told sydneyswans.com.au.

“This time last year I wouldn’t have even been playing, so it’s definitely been easy to get around the boys and be part of it all.

“The body is fine and it’s going well and I’m starting to find some form now.

“I’ve got a positive mind-frame, and nothing much is getting me down at the moment, so I hope that keeps going on.”

Not only has Brown’s consistency improved in 2013, the defender has also stepped up his on-field leadership.

In the Swans reserves most recent win over the Sydney Hills Eagles, Brown was named as acting captain, backing up his role with an impressive effort in defence and was named as the Swans’ best player.

“I really enjoy trying to be a bit more of a leader, and I kind of thrive on that a bit and it was probably my best game for the year,” he said about his game as acting captain.

“It really was a step in the right direction and I really did get a bit of confidence out of that and it’s made me think about how I can try to be more of a leader around the club.”

Off field, the young defender has benefitted from the ongoing help and advice from senior mentor Nick Malceski, who Brown says has played a big role in his improvement this season.

Brown added that working with Malceski has helped him identify areas he needs to focus on week-to-week.

“Nick has been really good and is really on the front foot when it comes to mentoring me,” Brown said.

“After every game we go through my tape and he gives me advice, and we have a little competition with how many pressure acts we get each week."

Brown is hoping to again bring his best form to this weekend’s clash against reigning NEAFL Premiers, the Brisbane Lions, at the SCG on Sunday morning.

With both sides undefeated in 2013, Brown said the Swans were hoping to makes amends for last year’ round 15 loss to the Lions at the SCG, where the hosts went down by 19 points.

“I’m really looking forward to this Sunday; these are the matches you want to play in” he said.

“They’ve got some big strong bodies and last year out on the SCG they ran over the top of us and we didn’t really play the way we wanted to play.

“It will be good to go out there and redeem ourselves and hopefully get a win.”

Brown said defence would play a big role towards any success against the Lions, adding that the Swans reserves tackling and defensive pressure must stand up against the strong-bodies of the Lions if they are going to remain undefeated after the weekend.

“We’re confident and I think we just need to stick to our game plan and mainly just stick our tackles,” he said.

“Last year that was the big thing against them because we let them run around and we just didn’t stick those tackles.

“They’ve got some big guys in their forward line, so we’ve got to keep them down to a few goals each, so me and Xav (Richards) have a big job ahead.”