Greg Brown (born 29 July 1962) is a former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as striker for both the

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

national football teams.

Club career

Brown played semi-professionally for

Mossley Mossley (/ˈmɒzli/) is a town and civil parish in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, in the upper River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame Valley and the foothills of the Pennines, south-east of Oldham and east of Manchester. The town grew ...

Hyde United Hyde United Football Club is a semi-professional football club in Hyde, Greater Manchester, England, formed in 1919. The team's strip is red shirts and black shorts and their home ground is the 4,250 capacity Ewen Fields. Hyde United's record ...

and

Southport Southport is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. It lies on the West Lancashire Coastal Plain, West Lancashire coastal plain and the east coast of the Irish Sea, approximately north of ...

in the United Kingdom before being brought to New Zealand by

Napier City Rovers Napier City Rovers is a football team based in Napier, New Zealand, competing in the Central League. Club history The team was founded in 1973 by the merger of Napier Rovers and Napier City. Napier City Rovers have won New Zealand's premier ...

midway through 1985. Despite being sent off in his club debut, Brown's goalscoring touch immediately turned struggling Napier's season around leading them from the bottom of the

New Zealand National Soccer League The New Zealand National League is the name given to the current New Zealand top association football, football competition. Originally set up as the New Zealand National Soccer League there has been many versions of the competition as well as ma ...

1985 Chatham Cup The 1985 Chatham Cup was the 58th annual nationwide knockout football competition in New Zealand. Early stages of the competition were run in three regions (northern, central, and southern), with the National League teams receiving a bye into th ...

winners in a final that became known as "Greg Brown's final", in which he scored one goal and set up two others in the 3–1 win over North Shore United. He was named man of the match in the final. However, with Brown injured, Napier failed to avoid relegation from the national league during the following week's promotion/relegation play-offs and Brown was pursued by several national league clubs, eventually moving to

Miramar Rangers Miramar Rangers AFC is a New Zealand association football club in the Wellington suburb of Miramar. The club is one of the most successful in New Zealand, having won the Chatham Cup four times and the National League title twice. Over the last ...

for the 1986 season. He was the national league's top scorer for the first half of the 1986 season but hit a dry spell due to injury during the second half. In February 1986 he was selected in the

New Zealand national football team The New Zealand men's national football team () represents New Zealand in men's international Association football, football competitions. The team is governed by the governing body for football in New Zealand, New Zealand Football (NZF), whic ...

, making four B-international appearances in friendlies against a touring USSR XI.New Zealand International Matches – Details 1980–1989
/ref> In 1987, Brown moved across the Tasman to play for the

Parramatta Eagles Parramatta Football Club, commonly known as Parramatta Melita Eagles or just Melita, are a semi-professional Australian Association football, soccer club based in South Granville, New South Wales, South Granville, New South Wales. The club was e ...

from 1987 to 1992 and the West Adelaide Sharks from 1992 till his retirement from professional football in 1994, aged 32. He was named Australian football player of the year in 1990 and was picked in the Australian national team in 1991, going on to make 12 appearances and scoring one goal.

Managerial career

Brown joined

Mitchelton FC Mitchelton Football Club is an Australian soccer club based in Everton Park, a suburb in Brisbane's inner-west, Queensland, Australia. Founded in 1920, the club competes in the Football Queensland Premier League. Overview The club was founded ...

in the local Brisbane competition in 1996 and was the club's head coach from 2004 to 2007. From November 1997 to March 1999, Brown was coach of the

Matildas The Australia women's national soccer team is overseen by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia, which is currently a member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the regional ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) s ...

, the Australian national women's team, and took them to a record 14 internationals without a loss. He resigned from the position after the side's poor showing at the World Cup in the United States.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Greg 1962 births Living people Men's association football forwards Australian men's soccer players Australia men's international soccer players New Zealand men's association footballers Expatriate men's footballers in South Korea National Soccer League (Australia) players Pohang Steelers players West Adelaide SC players Australian expatriate sportspeople in South Korea Napier City Rovers FC players English expatriate sportspeople in South Korea Parramatta FC players Miramar Rangers AFC players 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup managers Australia women's national soccer team managers English men's footballers Stalybridge Celtic F.C. players Mossley A.F.C. players Hyde United F.C. players Southport F.C. players Bonnyrigg White Eagles FC players Mitchelton FC players English football managers Footballers from Manchester 20th-century Australian sportsmen 20th-century New Zealand sportsmen