Lauren Brown (born 18 April 1995) is an Australian rugby league footballer who plays as a utility for the Brisbane Broncos in the

NRL Women's Premiership The Telstra NRL Women's Premiership (NRLW) is Australia's national rugby league competition for women's rugby league in Australia, female players. The first season of the league began in September 2018 with four teams. The league is run by the ...

and the Burleigh Bears in the

QRL Women's Premiership The QRL Women's Premiership, known as the BMD Premiership due to sponsorship from BMD Group, is the top level of women's rugby league football in Queensland, Australia. Run by the Queensland Rugby League, the competition is Queensland's first s ...

. Before switching to rugby league, she played

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

for the Brisbane Roar and Newcastle Jets in the W-League and for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in rugby sevens.

Background

Born on the

Gold Coast, Queensland The Gold Coast is a coastal city in the state of Queensland, Australia, approximately south-southeast of the centre of the state capital Brisbane. With a population over 600,000, the Gold Coast is the sixth-largest city in Australia, the nati ...

, Brown played rugby league growing up before having to give up the sport when she was 12, taking up

, touch football and surf lifesaving.

Playing career

Soccer

In 2011, Brown represented

at the

2011 AFC U-16 Women's Championship The 2011 AFC U-16 Women's Championship was the 4th edition of the AFC U-16 Women's Championship. The top 3 teams qualify for the 2012 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup. Venues The host city was Nanjing in Jiangsu, China. The Final round was played o ...

, scoring one goal. In 2012, she played for the Brisbane before moving to the Newcastle Jets for the

2013–14 W-League The 2013–14 W-League season was the sixth season of the W-League, the Australian national women's association football competition. The season consisted of twelve matchdays followed by a finals series. The regular season started on 9 Novembe ...

season.

Rugby sevens

In 2017, Brown played for Griffith University at the

Aon Aon or AON may refer to: * Aon (mythology), son of Poseidon in Greek mythology * ''Aon'' (moth), a genus of moths in the family Erebidae * Aon (trigraph), a Latin trigraph * "Aon", a composition by jazz pianist Harold Mabern, 1968 Business an ...

University Sevens and represented Australia at the Oceania Games. In 2018, she played for

Bond University Bond University is Australia's first private not-for-profit university and is located in Robina, a suburb in the City of Gold Coast, Queensland. Since its founding on 15 May 1989, Bond University has primarily been a teaching-focused higher ed ...

at the Aon University Sevens. In April 2018, she made her Rugby Sevens Series debut for Australia in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Rugby league

In 2020, Brown returned to rugby league, joining the Burleigh Bears. On 5 September 2020, she started at and was named Player of the Match in Burleigh's Holcim Cup Grand Final win over the Souths Logan Magpies. On 23 September 2020, Brown joined the Brisbane Broncos

squad. In Round 1 of the

2020 NRL Women's season The 2020 NRL Women's Premiership was the third season of professional women's rugby league in Australia. Teams Pre-season Regular season The season operated under a round-robin format, with games played as curtain-raisers to the 2020 NR ...

, she made her debut for the Broncos in a 28–14 win over the New Zealand Warriors. On 25 October 2020, she started at in the Broncos' 20–10 Grand Final win over the Sydney Roosters. On 13 November 2020, Brown made her State of Origin debut for Queensland, starting at and kicking four goals in a 24–18 win over New South Wales.

Achievements and accolades

Team

* 2020 NRLW Grand Final: Brisbane Broncos – Winners

References

External links

Brisbane Broncos profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Lauren 1995 births Living people Brisbane Broncos (NRLW) players Footballers who switched code Australian women's soccer players Brisbane Roar FC (A-League Women) players Newcastle Jets FC (A-League Women) players A-League Women players Australian female rugby sevens players Australia international rugby sevens players Australian female rugby league players Rugby league wingers Rugby league centres Rugby league hookers Rugby league players from Gold Coast, Queensland Women's association football midfielders