Kerry Brown breaks down the emotions of watching her son Tyler debut for Collingwood
There is nothing like watching your child’s AFL debut. But for Kerry Brown, seeing Tyler put on the black and white for the first time was anything but normal. She breaks down the rollercoaster week, family quarantine and that goal.
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The text message from Tyler Brown to mother Kerry pinged on her phone last Wednesday as she was watching Scott Morrison’s coronavirus update to the nation.
Her youngest boy was to make his debut alongside brother Callum, reward for an off-season of hard training and 12kg of added muscle.
Immediately she knew two things: he deserved that debut given a summer of toil, but that she wouldn’t be there to see it.
Yet 48 hours later a backflip by the AFL saw Kerry and her Collingwood Team of the Century member husband Gavin watching the game along with daughter Tarni and their grandmother Joan.
On Wednesday the Brown family were bunkered down in their Donvale home with North Melbourne assistant Gavin part of the AFL stand-down and the boys effectively on holiday.
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Still, they will always have the memory of that glorious night where Kerry says if anything the lack of a crowd enhanced the experience.
Especially during that glorious passage of play where Tyler fed Callum a handball for a Collingwood goal.
“We made the best of the opportunity and we had a beautiful corporate box and there was that piece of play where Tyler passed it to Cal and it was directly in front of us,” she said.
“Tyler said he should have got it back but having looked at the tape Cal tried to but once he couldn’t, he thought ‘Hello, I am going to kick it’.
“It was beautiful. It was almost in slow motion for us. There was that anticipation and thank god he kicked it.
“Collingwood had contacted me at 7pm the night before and said, ‘The AFL has changed their mind and we can get you in.’ For us to be able to watch Tyler run out was fantastic and as ridiculous as it sounds, it was quite a good way to watch him play.
“You could hear the comments from every player and the directions they gave. From our point of view the box was right behind the action and it was great, even if it would have been good to have a crowd cheer him on.”
Callum Brown played 22 games in his third season last year but Tyler hadn’t cracked a debut in his two seasons at the Pies so far.
“He has worked ridiculously hard,” said Kerry Brown of her son.
“From the time the season finished I don’t think he took a break. Although he is quiet, he has got a lot of determination and he set his mind to Round 1.
“He was doing running, weights, he has put on 12kg and one of his mates who was picked up by Adelaide, one night it was 12.30am and they were off for a run, they were that committed.”
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The Browns know they are luckier than most during this horrible period, even though the boys will take significant pay cuts and Gavin will wait for the football season to begin until he is paid again.
“We are in self-isolation now as a family because we have to. We are a close family so it’s going to be trying times for everyone and we will constantly be in each other’s space constantly, but we get on really well and we all have the same interests and there will be a lot of sports talk. I am driving them mad cleaning everything but the boys will train hard and try to get an edge for when they get back.”
Originally published as Kerry Brown breaks down the emotions of watching her son Tyler debut for Collingwood