Heading into the 2020 AFL season, two of Gavin Brown’s sons are at Collingwood – and in the future, his daughter could join them.
Tarni Brown is currently training with the Magpies as part of the AFLW Academy and hopes to join brothers Callum and Tyler at the Holden Centre ahead of the 2021 AFLW season.
Each AFLW club has a handful of Academy prospects training with their senior side for a six-week period before and after Christmas, with Tarni getting a glimpse of life at Collingwood.
If taken by the Pies in next year’s draft, Tarni would be Collingwood’s first father-daughter selection – something the 17-year-old once hadn’t thought possible.
Indeed, Tarni only started playing football competitively two years ago, having largely focused on basketball.
“I didn’t really know that much positions-wise or anything, so I had to learn a bit but I also knew a fair bit too,” she said on Monday.
“Back then I never really thought it (women’s football) would be a thing so it’s come good.”
The scene was set for Tarni from an early age in the form of super-competitive backyard basketball stoushes with Callum, now 21, and Tyler, 20.
The youngest of the three, Tarni was never afraid to punch above her weight.
“Every sport we played we all used to have our little challenges,” Tyler said.
“I remember playing basketball with Tarni and I probably beat Tarni through then and now she’s going better than us and she’d probably beat us now.
“Even if it was footy, we’d have a kick in the backyard.”
While the backyard scraps have stopped, all three Browns still live at home.
Callum has played 35 games for the Pies, while Tyler is eyeing an AFL debut in his third season on the list.
On the footy field, Tarni admits her brothers have given her “a few pointers” and says Gavin is “excited” at the prospect of his third child also heading to Collingwood.
Above all, the older brothers are happy their sister is starting to get the opportunities they could take for granted from an early age.
“Like Tarni said – she wouldn’t have expected to be here five, six years ago,” Callum sad.
“So it’s pretty exciting; it’s good that the girls’ footy’s obviously coming a long way now so they’re taking some really good leaps.
“And we’ve (Tyler and I have) obviously had it since we were a kid – we knew that we could play professional footy so it’s good to see Tarni get that opportunity.”