BROWN’S FAMILY LEGACY
Geelong defender Millie Brown is ready to carve out her own story as the Cats’ first fatherdaughter draftee. Ahead of this weekend’s
AFLW season opener, we catch up with the Browns to talk about footy, life and the incident that rocked the family.
Geelong defender Millie Brown has created history by becoming the first player drafted to the Cats under the father-daughter rule. Geelong Advertiser chief football writer LACHIE YOUNG caught up with Millie and her dad, former Cat Paul Brown, for a chat ahead of the season
LACHIE YOUNG: Well Paul, what it is going to mean to you when you get to see Millie playing for the Cats?
PAUL BROWN: It’s funny because everyone asks how proud I must be, but Millie has done this since prep school so it has been a natural progression. I have said this before, but who would have thought 12 years ago your daughter would be playing AFL footy? It is going to be exciting because I know she is capable of playing the game, but now that she has made the highest level, it is up to her what she does. We will certainly be going to as many games as we can, just like my parents did.
LY: Millie, how early did you know the Cats were going to take you?
MILLIE BROWN: The Cats had always been really supportive of me, even before this year. They never said anything was definite but I did some VFL training, so it was a bit of lead-up to it. I only knew for sure just before the draft, because they wanted to let me to focus on my studies, so they were always there in the background but never definite about anything.
LY: You’re living with Lucy McEvoy. How are you finding being out of home and away from your family?
MB: Initially I was going really well with it, but after going home over Christmas and then coming back, the second time was a bit harder. Living with the McEvoys, it hasn’t felt like I have fully moved out or that I am fully independent. Lucy’s mum is a bit like a Mum to me, and cooks and hangs out my washing, so I still have that.
LY: How are you finding it, Paul?
PB: Fantastic! I was popping champagne with my wife, Angela. It has been empty and quiet without Millie around but we still have two boys at home.
LY: Millie, what has been the biggest difference you have noticed since stepping up from under-18s to AFLW football?
MB: The frequency of training has been a big one. I would have trained once or twice a
“I will just keep going about it the way I was doing things previously. Whether I am a captain or not, having a label doesn’t matter to me.”
week with the (Murray) Murray) Bushrangers, so it t is just that level of professionalssionalism and the consistency stency that you have to keep rocking up. The recovery aspect is s really important and because you are training more often, everyone is there for halfalfan-hour after fter training to do their r ice baths, so I am realising ising how important it is now when you have to o back up three or more times es a week. LY: Sounds a bit different to your day, Paul.
PB: Absolutely. I remember in the four years I was there at Geelong as welfare coordinator, after I retired, that was when the shift ift was happening. The beers ers weren’t flowing around the he room. It was fruit on the table ble and a few lollies and healthy lthy eating. Recovery by the time me I had finished those four years ears involved guys sleeping over er and it is quite amazing, the e change in the game.
LY: Millie has as been a school captain, Murray urray Bushrangers captain in and Vic Country captain. ain. Did you always identify ntify those leadership traits in her?
PB: Probably obably not until last year ear when we went along g to some events at school and hearing Mille speak. Among her friends she has never been easily influenced and has always done her thing and done it her way, so that is probably the leadership that I see in her.
LY: What about at the Cats, Millie? We saw Sam Walsh at Carlton last year who arrived as a leader even though he was so young, but how have you found moving into a group with more experienced players?
MB: It has been a bit different adjusting to that. I was quite comfortable being the oldest in the team and having something to give to younger teammates. I think I have just gone in and been myself, which is all I have ever done. I go about things in my own way and being a leader isn’t artificial, you just have to be yourself. Meg McDonald has been really good for me on and off the field in the backline and there are some really good leaders there, so it is important for me to have respect for them and not come in and expect I will be a leader straight away.
PB: She has always used her voice in footy because she played right through to when the girls stopped playing with the boys in under-14s and even there she would be giving direction on the field. She was told by her coach that her voice was like having a 19th man on the field and she took that on board. She is always calling someone back or telling someone where they should be, so she has naturally had that from a young age.
MB: I would agree with that and I will just keep going about it the way I was doing things previously. Whether I am a captain or not, having a label doesn’t matter to me.
LY: If you could ask your dad one question about what
to expect before your first game, what would you ask?
MB: We don’t really talk about footy all that much, but probably just his own experiences of his first game. I think I’ve asked you that before and you just said you were on the toilet.
PB: Well I was always so nervous. Blokes used to vomit, ‘Couchy’ (Paul Couch) used to vomit and I had the runs leading into games. That is where things have changed as well. We used to do a warm-up and I was told my role was either to
go in the backline and stop my man or go into the forward line and kick a goal, whereas they have so much knowledge now on what is expected. So I won’t be giving her anything.
MB: It has changed so much.
PB: I haven’t really rolled out my old DVDs, or VHSs, to show her. A few games pop up on TV but it is always about Billy (Bill Brownless) or ‘Gazza’ (Gary Ablett Sr). There was this bloke who wore No.5 that was always getting in my way.
MB: You were his stepladder!
PB: Yeah, I was one of Gary’s stepladders.
LY: Well you talk about Gary, and he had a father-son play, and Billy has had Oscar and Sean Simpson has had Sam. Your daughter is the first father-daughter at the club, so it is historic, and I know you’re a joker, but that must mean something to you.
PB: Oh, yeah, I am pretty chuffed. It is historic for Geelong and I am lucky enough to be the dad who has the daughter to be doing it. I know Tim McGrath’s daughter is doing pretty well with football, and so is Sean Simpson’s daughter. I didn’t really have it in my mind to be coming back to Geelong that often, but it will be nice to catch up with some old friends and meet new ones and new parents of other female footballers.
LY: You strike me as someone who this would mean a lot to, Millie, but also as some
one who would be looking to forge her own path in the game as well.
MB: Yeah, it is a cool thing, and I haven’t realised how special other people see it as because Dad has always been my dad. But whenever people ask if I am going to wear his number, I just say no way.
PB: I got a text from David Wojcinski when Millie was drafted that said surely she will wear No.40. I laughed because
I knew she wouldn’t want it.
MB: Well it is Anna Teague’s number, so I am not going to take it off a teammate. But you’re right, it is great to acknowledge the opportunity it has given me, but I also want to do my own thing.
LY: Are you able to talk about how difficult it was as a young girl not knowing what was on the cards when your dad was involved in that horrible incident a few years ago? (Paul Brown suffered serious injuries after being cowardpunched in Shepparton in 2015).
MB: Well initially I was just shattered we weren’t going to be going to Queensland!
PB: Gee, I haven’t heard that one before!
MB: No, I woke up so excited and walked out and Nanna was on the couch and Mum and Dad weren’t there because Dad was in hospital, which I didn’t know at the time. When Nan told me I didn’t really understand the severity of it, and it was sad, but I think seeing Mum upset was what upset me the most. It was hard to deal with and it has been hard to deal with since, not just the difficulties at the time but the difficulties Dad can still have now. I don’t think people see that unless you are directly involved with our family, so it is still tough sometimes, but it is something I have learnt a lot from in terms of dealing with relationships and being patient and understanding other people.
PB: And also what is going on behind people, in their minds, because on the surface you can be fine.
MB: Yeah, and when people can’t help things, I think it has made me more empathetic.
PB: When it comes to a brain injury I guess is what I mean because it is like mental illness or anything, you don’t know what is going on in people’s heads.
LY: Millie is only 19, Paul, but clearly she has a pretty wise head on her shoulders.
PB: Yes, she has always come across as being pretty sensible. She is honest and everything is very real with her.
LY: Which will hold her in good stead in this competition. What about giving advice, how does that work between you?
PB: Well I always gave little tips along the way with all of my kids but once she got to the Bushrangers, I just thought the coach is the coach. Sam Ahmet was the coach and Millie might ask me something and I would say, what does Sam think?
MB: I have always liked how Dad has been, not disinterested but he doesn’t overstep the line. He knows the game really well but he has never thought he has known it better than any of my coaches. He respects what they think so he has never been one of those helicopter parents, which has been great.
LY: Well I wish you both all the best for the next few months and hopefully a long career at the Cats.
MB: Thank you.
PB: Thanks, Lachie.