THE MOST STRIKING thing about Callum Brown’s demeanour as he recalls the racist abuse directed his way during a childhood in Derry is his indifference that could almost be mistaken for apathy.
The highly touted prospect talks as if discussing bad weather or some other petty frustration. He is well accustomed with this grim reality. Just 19 years old and already totally familiar with the depths fellow men will lower themselves to in the name of sport.
Playing Gaelic football for Derry and soccer for Linfield was always likely to attract attention, but the teams themselves were unyieldingly supportive. Brown grew up in a progressive era where several of his Linfield team-mates had been exposed to Gaelic football in secondary school and the number of Catholic members was increasing.
The issue, insofar as there was an issue, lay with opposing teams: bested opposition who resorted to despicable means in a bid to halt their athletic superior. Little did they know, their depravity had the opposite effect.
“Both of my teams were so supportive,” Brown tells The42. “The problem was other teams. Some of them didn’t like it I guess and then lashed out with racist shit and all that.”
I never had a huge amount of abuse back home but whenever I did, in my mind I was just like, ‘Fuck you.’ Why should I care? I’ll do what I do. Why should I let you take that away?
“For a while I would just crack on.
But then when your team-mates hear it, they react rather than you. They just jump in. You get something out of that. It’s like, ‘Woah! They have my back.’ It nearly drives you on for them.
It’s this mental tenacity which has helped him earn a move across the world.
Brown is speaking from GWS Giants training facility in Olympic Boulevard, western Sydney. He is the midst of preparing for his second season with the AFL outfit having joined in 2018 after several superb showings with his club and the Derry U20s. The same attributes that made him a target for opponents caught the eye of Nicholas Walsh, the former Cavan footballer who was previously employed by the Giants as a defence coach.
The Derryman is the first GWS Giants player ever recruited from Ireland. They watched him for a year before even making an approach. It was Walsh who travelled to Derry for an Ulster League games and liked what he saw.
When they decided to offer him a contract, Brown was still 17 and couldn’t join. After his birthday, a deal was struck.
His first season was spent playing in the NEAFL and learning more about the sport, its systems and structures. The teen had to get up to speed, in every sense of the word.
“I didn’t expect it to be so much like American football,” he explains. “All the stoppages, setups and formations. I am starting to get the hang of it. The big thing is concentration.
“I still have a Gaelic football mindset. But here it’s, ‘Stay on your man. Do not switch off. Keep positional formations.’
“In Gaelic, if you can go, you go. You don’t have to stay on your man. As well as that, AFL is just constant running. Nonstop. I am so much fitter here.”
Weighing in at 91kg, with a max bench of 115kg, Brown holds the top speed and rower record at the club. He also has his eyes set on a sub-seven-minute 2km time trial.
“We do these runs here,” he says as he nods towards the oval pitch at their training facility. “Pole to pole. 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off. You might do 10 of them. Go, small rest, get ready to go straight back. Constant.
“The whole thing is about smashing it out, physically and mentally trying your hardest. Last year I would drop back, not really push myself until the end. Just trying to survive. But this year it has been flat out from start to finish.
“See, last year I had a groin injury, so I didn’t have a preseason when I first came out. I played the first game and from there played throughout the year. I had a pre-season this year. That makes a big difference. I’m in the right place now.
I mean, this was always the goal. My aim was always, always the same. Just make it in a professional sport. Play sport for my job. The dream.
Yet such a workload does take its toll. Professional sport has its payoff. It also has a price.
“The little niggles are constant. I got patella tendinous in my knee mid-season. I just had to run through it. Wow, that was sore. It’s still at me a bit.
“Then at the start of the season here, I got a weird problem between my hamstring and my knee. It just clicks and swells up. I haven’t a clue what it is. I got it scanned and had my quad scanned, but they weren’t sure. I have been doing hamstring curls to strengthen it up. It is a lot better now, but it still bothers me running.
“I think it is just from increased load. Back home I was constantly playing soccer and Gaelic, but it wasn’t as intense.”
Whether it be their social initiatives in the local community or their housing programme which pairs young squad members together, GWS Giants represent a community-centred club in a professional sphere. But this is professional sport. As such, it is a professional environment, a highly refined organism fixated on maximising every morsel for elite-level performance.
A big part of that is mindset and there is no doubt that Brown’s success so far is down to his.
The club have a structured formula to develop it. Scheduled meditation sessions and visualization lessons. A whole new world.
That is not to say the help was required. The rookie already had his own form of pre-game ritual.
“I’ve found the stuff here great, but before I came I had my own version anyway,” he says with a laugh.
For a few minutes beforehand in the dressing room, I’d sit back against the wall, close my eyes and relax. Think about anything else other than the game. Just take my mind off it. “Then once I go out on the pitch, I just know in my mind I will beat my man. I just know it. Even now. I’ve never played the sport, everyone else has 13 years playing it. They will be more efficient, more technical but still I just know I will get the better of them.
He confesses to being too ‘laid-back’ at times, but over the course of our conversation it becomes clear this has its benefits. It means obstacles are taken in his stride and pre-game nerves are kept to a minimum.
When it comes to motivation, Brown has his own way of stoking that too. The table-bashing, dressing-room roaring techniques never did it for him. He has his own method, a method he has brought with him to Sydney.
“I have a routine. I wake up at six or so just to be able to chat to people back home and stay in touch. As soon as it hits seven, my music is on. Speaker is blaring and I am flat out buzzing around the house. The boys here always ask me, ‘How do you do it? Where do you get your energy from on the morning of a game?’
“It’s just a mindset. Music is massive for me; I’m switched on once I start blaring it.
Now, when it comes to game day, I am the man on the speaker. If I get everyone else pumped, I am as well. When they are happy, you are happy. Everyone is in good form and ready to play well. It is all about the type of music. I am a techno man. I have techno or chilled house, as soon as it gets to about 20 minutes before a game, I start playing game-hype music. Before every single game, I play that song: ‘Thunder’… [Thunderstruck by AC/DC]. Play that and everyone explodes! They go crazy and you’re looking around saying, ‘Fuck. I started this.
With the new season starting this month, Brown has aspirations of making his first-team breakthrough. That is an ambitious target given his age and lack of experience, but several super showings in the NEAFL had him pushing close for a spot last season.
His thinking now is the same as it was when he gratefully grasped the opportunity in the first place.
“This is a great experience, but you can’t let it pass you by. My thinking always was as long as I make it in some professional sport, I know I will enjoy it. You want to be at home but there is an opportunity to play sport for your job. I want to progress now. So what if I haven’t played it before? I just went for it when I got the chance and I’ll keep doing that.”
Relentless resolve to keep cracking on.
