He had a medal-winning start to his Super League career in 2005 but, as John Ledger discovers, ambition is burning no less brightly for Brough.

DANNY BROUGH'S smile breaks into a broad grin. It is an expression that has become an almost permanent fixture on the face of rugby league's most appreciative hero.
But no one can deny that Brough has just cause to be happy.
Had circumstances been different, the 23-year-old would have been spending the winter months frozen to the core on a construction site in Dewsbury, either bricklaying or plastering – the two trades he learned as a teenager.
Instead the former Thornhill Trojan finds himself building a new life for himself as a star of Super League, a player who commands the respect and admiration of opponents throughout a competition he still has trouble believing he is part of.
"My life isn't anything like it was 18 months ago, it's a whole different world now," said the Hull scrum-half.
"Last year couldn't have gone much better, I established myself as a Super League player, picked up a Challenge Cup winner's medal and got a contract with Hull.
"I was surprised by how well it went. I've always had dreams, but I didn't expect so many of them to come true in such a short space of time."
Brough's breakthrough year would have gone better had he received the Lance Toddy Trophy his performance in Hull's Challenge Cup victory over Leeds so richly deserved. The award is selected by members of the Rugby League Writers' Association, who opted for Leeds captain Kevin Sinfield when they were asked to cast their votes with 10 minutes of the final remaining.
At that time the Rhinos were leading 24-19, but Brough prompted a remarkable fightback to help Hull win 25-24, the one-point difference between the two teams coming from his
58th-minute drop-goal.
It is no slight on Sinfield's contribution to a memorable final to say that had the voting taken place five minutes later Brough would have taken the Lance Todd by a landslide.
"What happened at Cardiff is still sinking in," said Brough. "The whole day just went by in a whirl and I still have new memories of it coming back to me all the time.
"I've only watched the match once since, once was enough. I loved seeing the game but you can have too much of a good thing."
Brough's story should provide a beacon of hope for every player in the lower divisions who aspires to join the Super League elite.
Within months of being plucked from the relative obscurity of National League Two rugby with York City Knights at the end of the 2004 season, Brough had established himself as a key member of Hull's first team.
A precocious and abrasive half-back of the old school, Brough saw his talent and application rewarded with a senior contract towards the end of last year, a situation which provided him with the stability he needs as he faces his biggest challenge.
Many players have struggled with "second season syndrome" after their breakthrough year through a combination of opponents becoming wise to their danger or complacency creeping in.
Fortunately there seems little danger of Brough being held back by any sense of "arrival" for ambition still courses strongly through his veins.
"I still have so much to achieve in my career and still have lots of areas of my game to work on. I'm as hungry as I ever was," he said. "It's going to be hard backing up what happened last year. I know there aren't any short cuts.
"It's not about going out there and being more flashy and trying too hard, it's just about working at my game, applying myself professionally and looking to improve with every performance."
Brough has worked hard on key areas of his game in recent months, most "flashily" his sidestep, and has been told the club expects him to be a more dominant presence now he is a recognised Super League star.
"I've been encouraged to try and do more myself, things like taking the line on my own and having a go rather than looking to offload all the time," said Brough, who admits to reining in his natural cockiness when he first arrived at Hull.
"I was a bit over-awed when I first broke through into the first team, I'd stand out wide and wait for people like Paul Cooke and Richard Horne to give me the ball.
"I was wary of jumping in and telling people who had been playing Super League for years what to do.
"As I settled in I became less nervous and a lot of that is down to how well I work with Richard. We speak to each other all the time during a match, there's a good level of understanding."
Brough recently bought a house in Hull with his girlfriend and is living the life of a professional rugby league player to the full, be that coping with the pressure of matchdays or having his hair re-styled in front of the Sky television cameras, an episode which remains the subject of some amusement among his team-mates.
"I've got a thick skin and give as good as I get," said Brough.
"It doesn't matter what anybody says, life just doesn't get better than this."