Former West Coast Eagles defender Mitch Brown has revealed that excessive drinking and boasting about sexual conquests earned him more respect inside an Australian Football League club than his performances on the field.
The 37-year-old, who last year became the first openly bisexual past or present AFL player, said entering professional football as a 17-year-old left him with a warped understanding of masculinity. He claimed young players were encouraged to suppress their emotions and conform to a narrow image of how an AFL footballer should behave.
Brown made the comments while attending the Melbourne premiere of Death of A Salesman at Her Majesty's Theatre last week. Speaking about his early years in professional football, he explained how club expectations shaped player behavior off the field.
"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."
Brown explained that acceptance within the playing group was tied far more to social conformity and locker room stories than to athletic output or skill on match day.
"It wasn't about how fast I could run or how high I could jump," Brown said. "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."
Locker room pressure and culture
The Australian Football League is Australia's premier professional Australian rules football competition. For decades, traditional football culture prioritized rigid expectations of physical toughness and emotional restraint among elite athletes.
Reflecting on his time in the league, Brown noted that the pressure to conform prevented players from being candid about their mental health or personal lives. Showing vulnerability, he said, was perceived as a weakness that could threaten a player's place in the team.
Draft history and career injuries
The former key defender was recruited by the West Coast Eagles, a Perth-based AFL club, with pick 16 in the 2006 AFL national draft after playing junior football in Ballarat, Victoria. He made his senior debut as an 18-year-old against Sydney in the opening round of the 2007 season, a match that served as a rematch of the previous year's grand final.
Brown went on to play 94 games across 10 seasons with the Eagles, though his career was repeatedly interrupted by serious injuries. A complete knee reconstruction ruled him out for the entire 2008 season, while further physical setbacks severely restricted his appearances in 2010, 2011 and 2015.
He was delisted by West Coast at the end of 2016 after the club was unable to arrange a trade to a Victorian team, bringing an end to his professional career at age 28.
Concealing sexuality and coming out
Brown later revealed that the psychological 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, he described the AFL environment as "hyper-masculine" and stated that homophobic conversations made it impossible for him to question his sexuality openly.
He recalled hearing two teammates discuss how they would feel about sharing facilities 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," he added.
Brown stated that he believes gay and bisexual players remain closeted within the AFL, and said he chose to come 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 comes from a prominent sporting family. He is the twin brother of Collingwood premiership defender Nathan Brown, and was formerly married to professional netball player Shae Bolton-Brown.
