Callum Brown: ‘AFL experience still feels like a whirlwind adventure’ as Derry man prepares for new season with GWS Giants

Derry’s Callum Brown is a man on a mission.

The Limavady footballer’s 2023 AFL season ended in heartbreak when the Greater Western Sydney Giants lost their preliminary final 58-57 to eventual premiers Collingwood at the MCG in September.

The ‘Orange Tsunami’ were the surprise packets of last season under first year coach Adam Kingsley and the versatile Brown, who penned a two-year contract extension in July, was pivotal to their success.

Brown (23) was in the form of his life last year when he established himself as a first-choice senior player for GWS and also proved his versatility by kicking crucial goals in the forward line after being switched from defence.

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“I arrived here as a teenager in a new country to learn a brand new game and even though it’s my fifth year, it still feels like a whirlwind adventure,” Brown explained.

“The Giants are my home and (last year) was a really exciting season under a new coach in Adam.

“Everyone is really clear on their roles and I’m just excited to be able to play my part and for the team.

“It was a super easy decision to re-sign and I’m really excited to continue to work on my game and hopefully there’s some really exciting times to come.”

Giants football boss Jason McCartney believes the best is yet to come for the 23-year-old Luton born ball magnet.

“Callum has always had high talent from an early age but we can’t underestimate the challenge he and other Irish players have adapting to Aussie Rules football,” GWS football boss Jason McCartney said.

“He’s shown glimpses of his excitement and development across the past few seasons and so this year he’s putting together a really consistent season at AFL level which is exciting to see.

“He’s got huge upside and is playing a really important role in the team across our forward line. We know he’ll be kicking impressive goals in the orange and charcoal for years to come.”

With less than four weeks until the start of the new season on March 7, Brown has been a part of the GWS squad who endured blistering summer temperatures well into the high 30s degrees Celsius in the Blue Mountains where they recently completed a brutal three-day pre-season training camp.

The players spent their time hiking, abseiling and mountain bike riding throughout the Blue Mountains, and even participated in a stomach-churning eating challenge which involved gulping down bizarre food items in the quickest time possible.

2023 AFL coach of the year Adam Kingsley believes the highlight of the camp was an arduous 25km hike through the region.

“The combination of hard work and a bit of fun is always important on these sort of camps. It’s been a really, really good camp and we’ve had a lot of fun but certainly a lot of hard work has gone into it,” he said.

“You struggle to find anything like this [the Blue Mountains] as close as we are in any city around Australia so for us to be able to jump on the highway and come up, a short drive, and spend three days up here we are quite lucky to have that opportunity and we’ve really enjoyed it.”

“Spending six, seven, eight hours walking together and just having a chat, you feel a bit closer and get closer connections and it was really good in the end.

“The Blue Mountain hikes are unbelievably stunning and for our players to be able to spend really the whole day doing that, seeing the views and looking at the beauty of the landscape was great for them and great for us, but it’s hard too.

“There’s certainly a few challenging uphill stairs that got the heartrate rising so it was really good and I think our players got a lot out of it.”

Kingsley believes his charges will be on top form when they kick off the season against Collingwood at Giants Stadium on March 9. Before then, GWS have to navigate a tricky pre-season derby fixture against the Sydney Swans at Tramway Oval on February 22.

“We’ll start to play games and quarters building up to that Sydney game, then we’ll get down to Canberra and play a practice match down there [against the Gold Coast Suns] which we are looking forward to and then we are into it [against Collingwood].

“It comes around pretty quickly but there’s been a lot of work go in, between when the players came back [on January 8] and now, and we’ve still got a little bit to go but I feel really comfortable with where we are tracking.

“As I said we’ve still got a little bit of work to do but we’ll get to work.

“There will be challenges that pop up ahead for all of us. But I’m sure we’ll embrace them and get past them the best we can.

“I just want to see us play the way I know we can play. If we play that brand of footy, that Orange Tsunami that people started labelling, if we do that, then hopefully we’ll be fun to watch.”

Brown became the first Irish recruit in GWS history in 2018 when he was signed as a Category B rookie. He found the athletic transition from Gaelic football to Australian rules relatively straight forward but by his own admission, struggled to grasp the mindset required to succeed in the AFL. He was incorrectly perceived as lacking hunger but a “serious kick up the backside” transformed his attitude.

“I think the coaches probably didn’t pick up from the start the kind of person I was, I was very relaxed and laid back,” Brown explained.

“It might look like I didn’t want to be there but really, I loved it.

“I knew I had the attributes, but I probably needed more of a footy sense. Maybe I just didn’t put the effort in that they wanted from me.

“It was a real kick up the a**, there were a couple of them throughout the years. Serious conversations in the meeting rooms with the coaches and Jason McCartney – ‘What are you doing? We know you have it, but you’re not showing it’.

“It clicked in my head. This is exactly what I want in my life, so I need to put more effort into it.”