Australian Football

One of Collingwood's favourite sons of all time, Gavin Brown played 254 V/AFL games and kicked 195 goals for the club from 1987 to 2000. The consummate team player, much of his best work was so surreptitious as to go virtually unnoticed, but it was obvious to those in the know that he was Collingwood through and through. A key member of the Magpies' 1990 premiership side, Brown won three Copeland trophies, made the AFL All Australian team in 1991 and 1994, and was an inspirational captain of the Woods from 1994 to 1998. Tenacious, wholehearted, and ultra-determined, his form could feasibly be viewed as an index to how Collingwood as a team was performing. He was also a distinguished Victorian state of origin representative, most notably when he captained his side to an heroic eight-point win over an extremely highly rated South Australian combination in Adelaide in 1997. Gavin Brown’s son Callum joined Collingwood under the father-son rule and commenced his senior AFL career in 2017.

Author - John Devaney