Former West Coast Eagles defender Mitch Brown has revealed excessive drinking and bragging about sexual conquests earned him more credit inside an AFL club than his performances on the field.
Brown, who last year became the first openly bisexual past or present AFL player, said entering professional football as a teenager left him with a warped understanding of masculinity.
The 37-year-old claimed young players were encouraged to suppress their emotions and conform to a narrow image of how an AFL footballer should behave.
‘When I jumped in, as a 17-year-old man playing professional football … I was mostly taught to be one version of a man,’ Brown said.
‘Talking about your emotions meant weakness, and weakness meant you wouldn’t be picked for the side.
‘But the more I leaned into that, the more I was accepted in this high performing AFL environment.
Mitch Brown said drinking and sexual conquests earned him more respect at West Coast than his performances on the field
The former Eagles defender said AFL culture gave him a warped understanding of masculinity after entering the league at 17
‘It wasn’t about how fast I could run or how high I could jump. It was how much alcohol I could drink, and how many women I could sleep with, and bring it back to the locker room and tell stories.
‘That gave me more credit at the footy club than my on-field performance.’
Brown made the comments while attending the Melbourne premiere of Death Of A Salesman at Her Majesty’s Theatre last week.
The former key defender was recruited by West Coast with pick 16 in the 2006 AFL national draft after playing junior football in Ballarat.
He made his senior debut as an 18-year-old against Sydney in the opening round of the 2007 season, a rematch of the previous year’s grand final.
Brown went on to play 94 games across 10 seasons with the Eagles, although his career was repeatedly interrupted by serious injuries.
A knee reconstruction ruled him out for the entire 2008 season, while further setbacks severely restricted his appearances in 2010, 2011 and 2015.
He was delisted at the end of 2016 after West Coast was unable to arrange a trade to a Victorian club.
Brown claimed players were discouraged from discussing their emotions because showing weakness could threaten their place in the team
The 37-year-old became the AFL’s first openly bisexual past or present player when he publicly came out in August 2025
Brown later said the strain of concealing his sexuality also contributed to his decision to leave professional football at 28.
When he publicly came out as bisexual in August 2025, Brown described the AFL environment as ‘hyper-masculine’ and said homophobic conversations had made it impossible for him to question his sexuality openly.
He recalled hearing two teammates discuss how they would feel about sharing a shower with a gay player.
‘I remember two people having a conversation around how they would feel having a shower next to a gay man, and one of the players said, “I’d rather be in a cage full of lions than have a shower next to a gay man”,’ Brown said.
‘There’s been so many times in my life that I’ve seen things or heard things and not said anything, in fear of people thinking that I was gay or bisexual.’
Brown believes gay and bisexual players remain closeted within the AFL and said he came forward to help others feel less isolated.
‘I don’t believe that this is about me. It’s not about Mitch Brown being the first at all,’ he said at the time.
‘For me, it’s about sharing my experience so others can feel seen.’
Brown is the twin brother of Collingwood premiership defender Nathan Brown and was formerly married to professional netball player Shae Bolton-Brown.
