Australian Football

Peter Brown was never entirely comfortable with his status at Carlton because he seemed to spend as much time in the reserves as the seniors. He made his senior debut for the Blues in round 12 1976 but was not again selected for another year. From 1977 onwards he was in and out of the side, but he proved immensely fortunate in that one of his extended stints of senior football included the 1979 finals series, from which Carlton emerged triumphant. Brown was not prominent in the grand final, which saw the Blues edge out Collingwood by five points, but he ended the day with every footballer’s holy grail, a VFL premiership medallion, clutched in his hand. It almost goes without saying that this was the peak of Brown’s football career, with everything else almost seeming like an anti-climax.

In 1981, after 35 games and 38 goals for Carlton, he crossed to St Kilda where he added a final 20 VFL games and four goals to his respective career tallies over two seasons. Stints in the VFA with Coburg (seven games, 24 goals in 1983) and Werribee (eight games, 22 goals, 1984) rounded off his career.

Author - John Devaney