| Brian Taylor | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Taylor in July 2019 | |||
| Personal information | |||
| Full name | Brian Wayne Taylor | ||
| Nicknames | "BT", "Bristle", "Barge", "Roaming Brian",[1] "The International Cool Breeze"[2] | ||
| Born | (1962-04-10)10 April 1962 (age 63) Pinjarra, Western Australia | ||
| Height | 191 cm (6 ft 3 in) | ||
| Weight | 91 kg (201 lb) | ||
| Position | Forward | ||
| Playing career1 | |||
| Years | Club | Games (Goals) | |
| 1980–1984 | Richmond | 43 (156) | |
| 1985–1990 | Collingwood | 97 (371) | |
| Total | 140 (527) | ||
| Representative team honours | |||
| Years | Team | Games (Goals) | |
| 1986 | Victoria | 1 (5) | |
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1990. | |||
| Career highlights | |||
| |||
| Sources:AFL Tables,AustralianFootball.com | |||
Brian Wayne Taylor (born 10 April 1962) is a formerAustralian rules footballer and currentAustralian Football League (AFL) commentator on television for theSeven Network. He played withRichmond andCollingwood from 1980 to 1990.
Taylor was 16 when recruited fromMandurah, Western Australia, to the Richmond Football Club.[3]
The moustached Taylor, known as "BT" and "Bristle", began hisVFL career withRichmond in 1980. He was a full-forward Taylor, and he played 43 games and kicked 156 goals at Richmond. However, playing at the same club as prolific forwardMichael Roach limited his senior playing opportunities; he was successful in the reserves grade, winning the VFL reserves leading goalkicker award in 1981 with 119 goals,[4] but ultimately asked to be transferred to Collingwood after the 1984 season.[3]
In 1985, Taylor joinedCollingwood. He kicked 100 goals in 1986 to win theColeman Medal. Due to repeated knee injuries, he retired from playing in the AFL at the end of the 1990 season at 28 years of age.[3] He had played 97 games for Collingwood, kicking 371 goals.
Taylor has admitted that early in his career, he had a problem controlling his aggression and was involved in some physical, comical incidents.[5]
In 1991 Taylor became playing coach ofPrahran in theVFA. In 1992, after he had kicked 16 and 9 goals in the opening two rounds, his knee gave way and he retired from playing after finishing that season with 64 goals. Continuing as coach, he again took the Two Blues to the finals. He retired as coach shortly before the 1994 season due to media commitments.[6]
G | Goals | K | Kicks | D | Disposals | T | Tackles |
B | Behinds | H | Handballs | M | Marks |
| Led the league after season and finals |
| Season | Team | No. | Games | Totals | Averages (per game) | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | B | K | H | D | M | T | G | B | K | H | D | M | T | ||||
| 1980 | Richmond | 21 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | N/a | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 3.0 | 0.0 | N/a |
| 1981 | Richmond | 21 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 14 | 7 | 21 | 10 | N/a | 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.8 | 1.4 | 4.2 | 2.0 | N/a |
| 1982 | Richmond | 21 | 15 | 71 | 25 | 110 | 23 | 133 | 78 | N/a | 4.7 | 1.7 | 7.3 | 1.5 | 8.9 | 5.2 | N/a |
| 1983 | Richmond | 21 | 6 | 19 | 16 | 41 | 23 | 64 | 33 | N/a | 3.2 | 2.7 | 6.8 | 3.8 | 10.7 | 5.5 | N/a |
| 1984 | Richmond | 21 | 16 | 61 | 44 | 125 | 24 | 149 | 90 | N/a | 3.8 | 2.8 | 7.8 | 1.5 | 9.3 | 5.6 | N/a |
| 1985 | Collingwood | 9 | 21 | 80 | 37 | 168 | 42 | 210 | 111 | N/a | 3.8 | 1.8 | 8.0 | 2.0 | 10.0 | 5.3 | N/a |
| 1986 | Collingwood | 9 | 20 | 100 | 63 | 192 | 36 | 228 | 135 | N/a | 5.0 | 3.2 | 9.6 | 1.8 | 11.4 | 6.8 | N/a |
| 1987 | Collingwood | 9 | 18 | 60 | 28 | 121 | 45 | 166 | 79 | 14 | 3.3 | 1.6 | 6.7 | 2.5 | 9.2 | 4.4 | 0.8 |
| 1988 | Collingwood | 9 | 21 | 73 | 38 | 136 | 37 | 173 | 104 | 10 | 3.5 | 1.8 | 6.5 | 1.8 | 8.2 | 5.0 | 0.5 |
| 1989 | Collingwood | 9 | 11 | 49 | 27 | 85 | 23 | 108 | 58 | 4 | 4.5 | 2.5 | 7.7 | 2.1 | 9.8 | 5.3 | 0.4 |
| 1990 | Collingwood | 9 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 21 | 7 | 28 | 12 | 2 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 3.5 | 1.2 | 4.7 | 2.0 | 0.3 |
| Career | 140 | 527 | 289 | 1015 | 268 | 1283 | 710 | 30 | 3.8 | 2.1 | 7.3 | 1.9 | 9.2 | 5.1 | 0.5 | ||
Towards the end of his playing career, Taylor was approached to write a weekly column in theSunday Herald newspaper. He kept a diary throughout the 1990 season, publishing it asBlack and White: The Taylor Diaries.[3]
On radio, Taylor started out with3UZ in 1991 before becoming the lead commentator for theTriple M commentary team from 1997 when the station became the firstFM radio station to broadcast Australian rules football matches.[3]
In 2010, he joined3AW's football commentary team as chief football caller, replacingRex Hunt who had moved to Triple M to call football on Saturday afternoons.[7][8] Taylor called the Friday night and either the Saturday or Sunday afternoon game for 3AW, alternating withTony Leonard subject to commitments with the Seven Network. Taylor's five-year contract with 3AW ended at the conclusion of the 2014 football season and was not renewed. 3AW's General Manager, Shane Healy, stated that Taylor "would focus on his TV career and that 3AW would move forward in 2015 without his involvement".[7] It was later confirmed Taylor would re-joinTriple M to call Sunday matches. In 2016 he also appeared on The Saturday Rub alongsideJames Brayshaw,Danny Frawley andDamian Barrett.[9]
On television, Taylor was an AFL commentator for theNine Network from 2002 until the station lost the broadcasting rights in 2006 to theSeven Network, he mainly called Sunday matches with Brayshaw andGarry Lyon. He remained with the station as a panellist onThe Sunday Footy Show until 2010 while also being the host ofAFL Teams and calling a Sunday match onFox Sports from 2009 to 2011.
From the start of the 2012 season, Taylor started calling Saturday night matches for the Seven Network and remained in the role until the end of the 2016 season.[10]
In 2017, Taylor replaced the retiringDennis Cometti joiningBruce McAvaney as a commentator of the marquee Friday night timeslot while also doing Sunday afternoon games for Seven, while remaining calling Saturday afternoon games for Triple M. Taylor also called theAFL Grand Final for Seven following the timeslot change.[11]
Also in 2017, Taylor started a segment during the Channel Seven coverage called "Roaming Brian". During this live segment he roves around in the winning teams' change rooms collecting ad-lib interviews with players. Often catching them off-guard, Taylor manages to get some candid, off-the-cuff comments from players, coaches, relatives, and other AFL identities, which provide some entertaining moments for viewers. Players are usually willing to be interviewed, though in 2018 he was rebuffed by Richmond'sToby Nankervis.[12]
Since 2025, Taylor began calling Thursday night matches alongsideHamish McLachlan after being moved from working on Friday night matches which since 2021 he called withJames Brayshaw but remained on Sunday afternoon working with mainly Alister Nicholson. He also calls Friday night and Saturday afternoon games on Triple M, the latter with his long time calling partner Brayshaw.
On 12 July 2014, during the Seven Network'sSaturday Night Football preview, Taylor called Geelong playerHarry Taylor a "big poofter" – a colloquial, homophobic slur. The incident was widely condemned and Taylor apologised at half time.[13][14] He was stood down from his role of broadcasting a match the following afternoon on radio station 3AW.[15]
