Fire and ice: Inside Brown's rise to Maroons match winner

Lauren Brown attributes her ability to ice match winning moments to years of kicking goals at halftime during Burleigh Bears games and the mental toughness developed through her work as a fire fighter.

Brown, who grew up playing soccer but dreaming of being Darren Lockyer, will return to the scene of her greatest individual moment as Queensland vice-captain in Thursday night’s State of Origin series opener in Newcastle.

After being forced to sit out of Origin in 2023 Origin while she was training to become a fire fighter, Brown kicked a matching winning field goal in Game II at McDonald Jones Stadium to send the 2024 series to a decider, which the Maroons won.

“That moment in Newcastle was unreal,” Brown said. “It all happened so fast.

“I feel bad taking all the credit because if Tarryn Aiken didn't score the try earlier and Sienna (Lofipo) didn't do that amazing run to get us in position for me to take the shot … we needed all these things to happen, and everyone did their role.

“I was just lucky enough that my role paid off too, and we got the win.”

Yet Brown’s Origin heroics were no fluke. She kicked two match winning field goals in 2023 to help the Titans to a grand final appearance against the Knights and again last season in the Round 11 triumph against the Raiders.

I always played soccer growing up, but even though I didn't play league, I always pretended I played league when I was in the backyard.

Lauren Brown

The 31-year-old Maroons playmaker had been preparing all her life for the match-winning feat that broke NSW hearts in Newcastle.

“It takes me back to kicking the footy down at Burleigh Bears with dad,” Brown said. “After goal kicking practice or if we’d gone down to do some general play kicking, or anything, we would always finish with field goals - just in case.

“I think that muscle memory just kind of kicked in, and I think my firies training also helped with such a pressure situation.

“It's really about focusing on the process instead of the outcome, so I wasn't thinking if it was going to go over or not, I was more thinking, ‘catch the ball, and make sure I hit it sweetly - head down, follow through' - and hopefully by the time I'm looking up, it's going through the posts.

“The look on the faces of my teammates was the best thing, just seeing how happy and excited they were made it the most special.”

Fire

There was a time, however, when Brown wasn’t certain that she would be able to combine rugby league with a career as a fire fighter after being forced to withdraw from the 2023 Origin series.

When I was little, I'd buy a Queensland jersey, I'd get the number six and the name Brown printed on the back.

Lauren Brown

A gruelling two years of physical and cognitive testing earned her a place at the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Academy to train to become a firefighter.

“That was really hard, and it was definitely a risk, but watching State of Origin from the sideline really lit the fire in my belly,” Brown said.

“It was kind of a short-term pain for long-term gain, being able to set up my life outside of footy and for life after footy to make sure I have a career to fall back on.

“It definitely is hard at times, but I think I'm very fortunate that the draws for State of Origin and NRLW come out so early that I'm able to chat with work. If anything clashes, they're really accommodating.

“We do four days on, four days off, so we do two 10 hour days followed by two 14 hour nights, and then we have four days off, so it's just working that around training and having four days off I can really frontload my training.”

Brown joined her Queensland team-mates in camp after most of the squad assembled on the Sunshine Coast due to work commitments last Tuesday and Wednesday.

Each shift is unpredictable and can involve anything from rescuing motorists trapped in a car after an accident to extinguishing fires and many other tasks.

“It’s a really physical, challenging job but it is also a really rewarding job,” Brown said.

We're first responders, so you never know what each day holds.

"We attend all kinds of incidents - car accidents, obviously a lot of fires and any real incident or accident where we are needed.

“Every day is different so you roll into the station ready for anything, and then we get the call and we respond.

“It's not a job where you can just sort of relax because you're basically always on call.”

Ice

A former A-League midfielder with Brisbane Roar and Newcastle Jets, Brown also represented Australia in rugby 7s before switching to rugby league - her first love - in 2020 with Burleigh Bears.

After two seasons with the Broncos, including a premiership win in 2020, she joined the Titans and has now played 45 NRLW matches.

 "I always played soccer growing up, but even though I didn't play league, I always pretended I played league when I was in the backyard," Brown said.

“I’d go to watch the Burleigh Bears and at halftime all the kids are allowed to run on the field and have a kick, so I'd take my kicking tee and my footy, and Dad and I would go out and kick some goals, then run off when the boys started coming back out.

I was always kicking the footy; putting in little grubbers, practicing my chip-and-chase or I’d get some of the coaches to put up bombs for me so I could run around and catch them.

“When I was running around I’d be Darren Lockyer. He was my ultimate favourite - cool, calm, collected, and just the absolute GOAT. He was my idol."

Despite not taking up league until she was 25-years-of-age, Brown always dreamed of playing for the Maroons like Lockyer - except it wasn't a possibility when she was a girl.