Richmond star Nathan Brown says he has not entered an AFL season feeling this good about his form and fitness since 2005.

The classy 31-year-old forward started that season in career-best form, snaring 34 goals in 10 games before suffering a horrific leg break.

Related injury troubles cut his following two seasons in half, before he finally had the uninterrupted run he needed to start approaching his best form last year.

But Brown said this was the first time since the injury that he would enter a season with a full load of training and solid match form behind him.

"Since 2005 it's the best I've felt, best pre-season I've had and probably the best lead-up in the practice match series I've had too," Brown said on Wednesday.

"Last year I didn't get a kick in the practice match series and didn't get a kick in round one or round two, so I've had a few kicks over the last couple of weeks.

"You always want to get out there and feel the footy, kick a few goals and make sure you're on track for round one and going into the season."

But Brown was uncertain whether he would ever recapture the game-breaking magic of his pre-injury days.

"That remains to be seen, I just want to get out there and do my bit for the team," he said.

"We've got guys like Mitch Morton, obviously (Matthew Richardson's) tearing the competition apart at 34, he's obviously the Benjamin Button of the competition at the moment.

"Ben Cousins, Nathan Foley, Brett Deledio, they're the guys that will be tearing the game apart and if I can do my bit I'm happy and looking forward to playing some good footy."

Brown said there had not been a pre-season filled with so much optimism in his previous five seasons at Tigerland, with the depth of talent the best it had been in that time.

He said the anticipation surrounding the AFL season-opener against Carlton next Thursday added to the excitement.

"There's going to be 90,000 people, obviously everyone's looking forward to Ben (Cousins) playing his first game and an old rival like Carlton certainly gets the juices flowing," Brown said.

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