AFL great Campbell Brown spills beans over dad’s iconic, viral incident

Campbell Brown has spilled the beans on the incident that ended his footy career — and the moment his dad went viral around the world.

Campbell Brown has revealed wild new details about his sacking from the Gold Coast Suns — and the incident that saw his dad overshadow the career-killing controversy.

The colourful footy icon has spilled the beans on the most dramatic moments of his footy career in a gripping tell-all podcast appearance.

The 39-year-old Hawthorn premiership legend has given the inside story behind the three incidents where he ended up in a police holding cell — but his most eye-catching revelation surrounds the iconic incident that saw his father, former Richmond player and WAFL Hall of Fame inductee Mal Brown, become a cult hero for his appearance in a video that became a global hit.

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Brown has told the ‘Ausmerican Aces’ Tommy Talks podcast about the moment he realised his father had inflamed the media storm surrounding his future in the days leading up to his sacking from the Suns.

The former Footy Show commentator and popular footy media analyst was famously axed in 2013 after he broke the jaw of former teammate Steven May during an altercation outside a Los Angeles nightclub. He had a full season to run on his contract, but never played again at AFL level. His career ended on the spot.

Mal and Campbell Brown

2008 Grand Final. Geelong v Hawthorn. MCG. Campbell Brown is congratulated by his father, Mal and mother.

Before the Suns dropped the guillotine on Brown, the scandal had swirled into a media frenzy with speculation mounting his contract was going to be torn up after a string of incidents on and off the field.

The scandal famously erupted when vision of the altercation between Brown and May — captured during an off-season trip to Las Vegas with several other teammates — was leaked to Australian media agencies.

Brown says he and May had dealt with the situation and apologised to each other before even arriving back into Australia.

With the story running on the front page of newspapers and at the top of news bulletins, Melbourne TV networks had reporters and camera operators camped out the front of Mal Brown’s family home in the inner-eastern suburb of Hawthorn.

After days of remaining silent while TV crews set-up on the street outside his house, Mal Brown finally cracked it.

“I got into that dust up with Maysy,” Brown told host Tommy Sheridan on the podcast.

“And me and him flew back the next day. I’d apologised to him and he’d apologised to me. It wasn’t my intent to hurt him. It’s like when you have a fight with your brother or something – it’s just two big, powerful brutes. To my knowledge me and Maysy are fine. We don’t speak too often, but we see each other around the traps and he’s gone on to be an absolute superstar of a player. All-Australian, premiership star.

Campbell Brown sings with Gold Coast teammates in his final season. Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images.

“The lead in to that was that I rang my old man, right. I said, ‘This is what’s happened’. We were in LA. I told him the story. I told him, ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen in terms of punishment or discipline or my career or whatever, but if you could just say ‘no comment’ and keep your mouth shut, that would just be great’.

“I knew that they’d love to get a grab from Mal. He said, ‘Son, you have my word. I won’t make a comment’. And three or four days went by and what the press were reporting about the incident was just so far off the mark. They were just saying all sorts of ***t which just wasn’t accurate. The old man was just on a slow burn a little bit. He’s just getting a bit angrier and a bit angrier each day.

“And the Suns had never come out and clarified some of the misinformation which might have potentially helped. I reckon the story broke on a Thursday and I reckon it got to the Monday, so four days have gone past and Mal’s on the f***ing slow burn and he hasn’t said a word.

“I’m up on the Gold Coast, waiting for what’s going to happen. Am I going to get suspended? Am I going to get the sack? Am I going to get nothing? And he’d gone out down the street for a little bit and he’d come back home and he usually parks on the street — we had a house in Hawthorn — and there were two vans parked out the front, a Channel 9 van and a Channel 10 van. And they’d been waiting there for a couple days to try and get Mal and door-stop him.

A Channel 9 video grab of the Suns brawl in Los Angeles between Campbell Brown and Steven May.

Campbell Brown and Steven May went at it. Photo: Channel 9.

“Mal’s said, ‘I’m too smart for them, I’m going to go up around the block’. My mother wasn’t there at the time so he knew the car park at the back garage was free. So he goes up the alley way, rolls up the garage door, drives in and to Mal’s knowledge, he’s got in.

“And an eagle-eyed, very young cadet – in the first week of her job at Channel 10 – was a young Sharnelle Vella, who is now the Channel 7 court reporter and does a great job. She’s seen Mal go up the alleyway so she’s told the cameraman to come with me and they sort of snuck up the alley. And as Mal’s trying to bring the roller door down she comes in camera’s rolling and microphone. And Mal gets out the car and bang. There she is. There’s the camera. He’s been caught. He’s been door-stopped. And she says have you spoken to your son at all? And Mal, just off the top of his head without breaking stride, delivers down the barrel, ‘No I haven’t and can you go and get f***ed and get out of my life and out of my property and ring up and make a time like every other c*** does that’s got any manners’. And she goes, thank you.

“I don’t even know how you get c*** and manners in the same sentence so eloquently, but he did it. And I’m on the Gold Coast. It’s like 4pm in the afternoon on a Monday and the old man’s ringing. I pick up. Hello? And the old man says, ‘Son, I’ve made a comment’.

“And that was it. And so that ran. And now everyone says that’s the greatest f***ing response I’ve ever heard. And now it’s become like a meme. It’s gone viral. He can’t believe it. He’s got like a million hits on YouTube. He wouldn’t even know what YouTube is.

“That always gets a laugh. It is just the most remarkable statement. We’ll play it at his funeral I reckon.”

Earlier in the podcast, Brown also opens up about the darkest moments of his career, including his Gold Coast arrest and his night in a Thailand police holding cell.