Tyler Brown’s pre-season experience with Collingwood inspiration for father-son hopeful

FOLLOWING a pre-season stint at Collingwood, Tyler Brown improved at warp speed in his final year of junior football and is set to join his brother Callum in black and white.

Tyler Brown takes part in the 20m sprint during the AFL Draft Combine.

IT didn’t take Tyler Brown long to find out life in the black and white is a serious business.

The teenage son-of-a-gun got a rare insight into the world of a professional footballer when he spent a week training with Collingwood during the pre-season earlier this year.

Arriving bright and early on his first day, Brown was shocked to see that at 7am, before they were even required to be at the club, multiple players were shivering in the ice-baths.

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It was at that moment he knew the sacrifices he would have to make to get to the top. And since then, Brown has met every challenge head on.

Following his stint at the Magpies, Brown has improved at warp speed through his final year of junior football.

This time last year he wasn’t even in the TAC Cup system.

Tyler Brown in action for the Eastern Ranges.

Tyler Brown at the AFL Draft Combine.

Now he is right on the radars of Collingwood and multiple other clubs as the draft approaches.

“I think it (getting into the TAC Cup system later) can definitely be an advantage,” Brown told the Herald Sun.

“I’ve always really liked to enjoy my footy and everything but I think this year was really the right time to focus and be serious and really try and push to see where I can get.”

If Brown needed a mid-season boost of motivation, it came in the form of his older brother Callum’s AFL debut.

After being selected under the father-son rule with the 35th pick in last year’s draft, Callum’s first game came in front of 70,000 screaming Collingwood and Melbourne fans on Queen’s Birthday.

The entire Brown family was down in the rooms to see Callum presented with his jumper before the match, but it was another moment that left a lasting impression on Tyler.

Collingwood great Gavin Brown with a younger Callum, Tyler and daughter Tarni.

Callum Brown on his AFL debut against Melbourne. Picture: Michael Klein

“It was pretty cool seeing him get his first touch and hearing the crowd get really excited for him. That made me really excited as well.”

Brown has been lucky enough to have multiple sounding boards available to him during his draft year.

As well as the coaches at the Eastern Ranges, who he credits for rapidly getting him up to speed for TAC Cup football, he has bounced ideas off his brother and famous Collingwood father, Gavin.

“Cal’s said to me to really just enjoy the year. It is only going to happen once so just enjoy it and try and get the most out of it.

“He (Gavin) has helped me improve my game over the year and has been a really big help. It’s been a great year.”

Brown started the TAC Cup season playing as a forward but a late season move into the midfield allowed him to take his game to another level.

He is taller than Callum and has some serious x-factor around the goals and in traffic.

In late October, Collingwood officially nominated Brown as a potential father-son selection.

The Magpies would be hoping to snap him up with a late draft pick but may have to decide if they will match an early bid from a rival club.

Brown’s TAC Cup coach, former Bomber Darren Bewick, has urged the Pies to do whatever it takes to get the potential father-son to the club.