Growing up a short walk from his local footy field and with a father and uncles who all played at the club, it seemed Taylor Brown was bound to find himself enamoured by rugby league.
“When I was growing up, I had a really close community club that I played for in New South Wales and if you weren’t playing, you were down there watching the other teams play," Brown said of St Christopher's Panania Junior Rugby League Football Club.
“I lived 200 metres from the footy fields and in the afternoons, I would just go down there.
“I wouldn’t be training, my brother wouldn’t be training, and I would just be down there kicking a footy.
“So I guess footy has always been there, it’s just something I have always done and always will do.
“I signed up and played juniors there and played there until I guess I switched over to play rep football for the Dragons.
“My dad play 10 years there, and both my uncles had all been 10-year players at the same junior football club, so I played at the same club they played at.
“I had a choice and I always choice it, but it was destined to be involved in football.”
Best known by Queensland rugby league fans as a prop with the Redcliffe Dolphins, Brown enjoyed a 54-game career in the then Intrust Super Cup and decided to hang up his boots after COVID-19 shut down the season in 2020.
During his career at the peninsular, Brown created many fond memories; beginning with his very first game.
“My debut game was against Papua New Guinea for their first game of the competition in 2014," Brown said.
“It was my first year in the comp in Queensland, I was playing with Jon Green who was the starting front rower, Ackers (James Ackerman) was the other starting front rower and David Hala was on the bench with myself, and we were coming up against these man mountains from PNG... it was a very exciting game and there were more PNG people than there were Dolphins fans in the crowd and it was just exciting that they were there in the competition.
"I think that was probably a highlight of mine, and even though some of the names aren’t the biggest names, I think that was one of the best front row rotations – Ackers was really tough, and Jon Green had obviously been with the Dragons and Sharks and had been involved in a premiership side with the Dragons and David Hala was the Broncos prop at the time.
“It was pretty cool to be playing with them and I guess 2016 grand final loss, as much as we lost, to play at Suncorp (Stadium) in front of my family who had all travelled up, that was a really, really big moment."
While he is off the field now, Brown has managed to keep just as busy with the game since his retirement. Not only is he the coach of his son’s under 6 team at Redcliffe, Brown can also be found armed with a mic and a notepad, commentating games of a weekend.
“I commentate for Brisbane Rugby League for John (Devine), so I do commentary; you can find me there pretty much every Saturday and I do a bit of work (for QPlus.tv)... I did a fair few of the BMD Premiership games at the start of the year, I have just done a League Championship game, so I do a lot of that sort of stuff, (but) I want to do Cup, that is my goal to be a regular in the Hostplus Cup."
Although Brown wasn't looking for a commentary role at the time, a former Redcliffe team mate Cameron Cullen threw his name into the mix to call BRL matches alongside Devine when he was looking for a co-caller.
"Cullo straight away said I have got the perfect bloke and called me and said ‘what do you reckon?’ and I said ‘I’ll try it out, why not?’," Brown said.
“So I went down and tried it and John said ‘did you have fun?’ and I said ‘I loved it’ and he said ‘do you want to come back next week?’ and I said ‘yep’ and then I guess I have hung of his hip ever since.
“It opened up that door and I just ran through it."
As well as commentating, Brown is also part of the team at Queensland League Scene, a vodcast that covers all things rugby league across the state.
Helmed by Devine and Brown, and featuring insights from coaching identity Lee Addison, the weekly show puts an extensive focus on the game at all levels.
“We also do Queensland League Scene, between myself, John Devine, Kel Bogan and Lee Addison... we all do Queensland League Scene and we interview players, coaches, anyone involved in the Queensland league scene – (Hastings Deering) Colts through to BMD Premiership to Hostplus Cup.
“The reason I do Queensland League Scene as well is that I played in that competition for seven years and I knew so many players around me who had really cools stories, and from all these places and they are great blokes and they are funny and they are characters.
“The perfect example is Toby Rudolf. He got picked up and when to NRL and someone interviewed him and now he’s a cult hero and I said at the start of this Queensland League Scene stuff and when I am commentating, all of these players have a story and all of these players have somewhere they are from and all of these players have a personality.
"At our level… it’s a really, really, top shelf flight of rugby league and not many people get here, so they all deserve to be highlighted in some way.
“I absolutely love it, I am meeting new people from all different organisations at the same time and I am doing that, I am highlighting not just the footballers we have here because they do that on the footy field, but the (players) behind that, the ones that like to have a laugh, or the ones that like to play a prank on each other or have a joke, that’s the cool bit for me."
