Malcolm Gregory BROWN

PLAYER:  1965-77

GAMES: 218: East Perth 166; Richmond 14; Claremont 12; South Fremantle 16; WA 16

PREMIERSHIPS: East Perth captain-coach 1972; South Fremantle coach 1980

HONOURS:Sandover Medal 1969, runner-up 1972, East Perth fairest and best 1969-70,72; All Australian Captain 1972; life member East Perth, South Fremantle, WAFL; member WAFL Commission, coach East Perth 1970-72, Claremont 1975-76, South Fremantle 1978-84, 1992, Perth 1985-87, WA 1973, 1981-82, 1988.

Mal Brown has been all things – player, coach, administrator and media commentator in a colourful, controversial and hard-hitting career.  Never pulled his punches as a player or coach with frequent outbursts against officialdom, especially umpires.  For all his bluntness, Brown was one of football’s great characters – innovator, thinker and developer of young talent.  At 22 he won the 1969 Sandover Medal, beating Graham Farmer by three votes.  Appointed captain-coach of the Royals the next year, he led them to their first premiership in 13 years in 1972.  Inexplicably, six weeks before the grand final, the board had appointed Victorian Kevin Murray to take over as coach the following year.  The decision caused an uproar among members and in a remarkable turnaround, Brown got the job back in January, 1973, after Murray returned to Melbourne.  Brown was cleared to Richmond in 1974 for $35,000, then the highest transfer fee for a WA player.  He missed the Tigers ’74 premiership due to suspension.  

The following year he came home to coach Claremont.  In 1987 after a stint as coach of Perth, was appointed to the WAFL Commission for two years, fighting for a better deal for football from the State Government.  A champion of WA football, he once publicly took on West Coast coach Mick Malthouse over state-or-origin games.    He moved to Melbourne in 1993 as Business Manager at Richmond.  He still lives there and his son Campbell plays for Hawthorn.