Mitch Brown (footballer, born 1988)

Last updated

Mitch Brown
Personal information
Full name Mitchell Brown [1]
Date of birth (1988-12-17) 17 December 1988 (age 36)
Place of birth Ballarat, Victoria
Original team(s) Ballarat Football Club/North Ballarat Rebels
Draft No. 16, 2006 national draft
Height 197 cm (6 ft 6 in)
Weight 95 kg (209 lb)
Position(s) Defender [2]
Playing career
YearsClubGames (Goals)
2007–2016 West Coast 94 (13)
Career highlights
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Mitchell Brown (born 17 December 1988) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL).

Contents

Originally from Ballarat, Victoria, he played under-18 football for the North Ballarat Rebels in the TAC Cup before being recruited by West Coast with the 16th pick overall in the 2006 National Draft.

He made his debut for West Coast in round one of the 2007 season, and played a total of 94 games for the club, alternating between defence and the forward line. Brown's career has been interrupted by injuries, causing him to miss the entire 2008 season and 2015 season, as well as significant parts of the 2010 and 2011 seasons.

Career

Brown was born on 17 December 1988 in Ballarat, Victoria. He attended St Patrick's College in Ballarat, [3] and played junior football for the Ballarat Football and Netball Club, [4] and under-18s for the North Ballarat Rebels in the TAC Cup, as a key forward. Brown was selected by the West Coast Eagles with pick 16 in the 2006 National Draft.

Brown made his debut for the West Coast Eagles in Round 1 of the 2007 season against the Sydney Swans, in a rematch of the 2006 AFL Grand Final. He played five games in his debut season, playing in both in the forward and back lines. He missed the entire 2008 season because of a knee reconstruction, [5] before rebounding to play 19 games in 2009, including winning a Rising Star Award nomination in Round 19 against the Western Bulldogs. [6]

Brown played 13 games in the 2010 season, being dropped three times. He played in the forward line for much of the first half of the season, but was in and out of form. [7] He found a role as the Eagles' centre half-back towards the end of the season, becoming one of their better players in defence, before his season was ended by a groin injury.

At the conclusion of the 2016 season, Brown announced he had signed with St Kevin's Old Boys Football Club in the VAFA after he was delisted by West Coast after failing to facilitate a trade to a Victorian club during the trade period. [8]

Personal life

Brown's twin brother, Nathan Brown, played football for St Kilda in the AFL, and was a part of Collingwood's 2010 premiership win. [3] His former wife, Shae Bolton Brown (née Bolton), was a professional netball player. [9]

In August 2025, Brown came out publicly as bisexual, becoming the AFL's first openly bisexual past or present male player. He revealed that the weight of hiding his sexuality had taken its toll on his AFL career, where homophobic insults and conversations were commonplace on and off the field. [10]

Statistics

Statistics correct to the end of 2016 [11]
Legend
  G  
 Goals
  K  
 Kicks
  D  
 Disposals  
  T  
 Tackles
  B  
 Behinds  
  H  
 Handballs  
  M  
 Marks
SeasonTeamNo.GamesTotalsAverages (per game)
GBKHDMTGBKHDMT
2007 West Coast 15233317502540.40.66.63.410.05.00.8
2008 West Coast 1000000000.00.00.00.00.00.00.0
2009 West Coast 1194110417628086320.20.15.59.214.74.51.7
2010 West Coast 113457710117843240.30.45.97.813.73.31.8
2011 West Coast 160039236214100.00.06.53.810.32.31.7
2012 West Coast 18002643692280.00.03.25.48.62.81.0
2013 West Coast 119028310518855440.00.14.45.59.92.92.3
2014 West Coast 11931879518250410.20.14.65.09.62.62.2
2015 West Coast 1100022000.00.00.02.02.00.00.0
2016 West Coast 14111320336140.30.33.35.08.31.53.5
Career94141346258210443011770.20.14.96.211.13.21.9

References

  1. ↑ "AFL team lists". The Age. 6 January 2013. Archived from the original on 27 August 2025. Retrieved 27 August 2025.
  2. ↑ "Mitchell Brown". West Coast Eagles. Archived from the original on 11 April 2018. Retrieved 22 December 2016.
  3. 1 2 Fate leads AFL twins Mitch and Nathan Brown down two paths Archived 8 February 2020 at the Wayback Machine – perthnow.com.au. Published 5 September 2008. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
  4. ↑ Big News Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine – ballaratfc.com. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
  5. ↑ "Brown's creed: fitter, faster, stronger - Official AFL Website of the West Coast Eagles Football Club". www.westcoasteagles.com.au. Archived from the original on 7 March 2012.
  6. ↑ "Brown a star on the rise". Westcoasteagles.Com.Au. 11 August 2009. Archived from the original on 7 March 2012. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
  7. ↑ Quartermaine, Braden (3 April 2010). "Eagle Mitch Brown tips forward partnership with Josh Kennedy to strike fear". Perth Now. Archived from the original on 6 June 2012. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
  8. ↑ Gaskin, Lee (31 October 2016). "Brown departs Eagles, McInnes set for rookie lifeline". AFL. Bigpond. Archived from the original on 10 April 2019. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  9. ↑ "Eagles delist defender Mitch Brown in AFL" Archived 31 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine , SBS News, 31 October 2016. Retrieved 31 October 2016.
  10. ↑ Koslowski, Sam; Gillespie, Emma; Maher, Orla (27 August 2025). "EXCLUSIVE: Ex-West Coast player becomes AFL's first openly bisexual man". The Daily Aus. Archived from the original on 27 August 2025. Retrieved 27 August 2025.
  11. ↑ "Mitch Brown statistics". AFL Tables. Archived from the original on 9 April 2014. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.