Dave Brown started his club career in the Brisbane Rugby League competition with the Souths Magpies. In 1981, Brown signed with Sydney club Eastern Suburbs. Under the coaching of Bob Fulton, Brown played 41 games for the Roosters in 1981 and 1982, before following Fulton to Manly in 1983 where he would win the 1983 Dally M of the year award, though injury kept him out of the Sea Eagles Grand Final team that lost 18–6 to Parramatta. Brown stayed at Manly for the 1984 season, before once again joining Easts for what would be his last two years of top grade football in Australia. After finishing his career with Easts at the end of the 1986 NSWRL season, Brown ventured to England where he joined Hull F.C. in the 1986–87 season. Dave Brown played Left-, i.e. number 8, in Hull FC's 24–31 defeat by Castleford in the 1986Yorkshire County Cup Final during the 1986–87 season at Headingley Rugby Stadium, Leeds on Saturday 11 October 1986. Hull finished the season in 11th place and only two places away from being relegated to the Second Division. Following the season, Brown returned home to Brisbane. After returning to Australia, Brown played in the Western Australian Rugby League in Perth as Captain-coach of the Belmont Steelers in 1988–90.
Representative career
Dave Brown made his first representative appearance when he was selected Queensland in a 30–5 loss to New South wales in 1979. Later that year he was chosen for the Brisbane Firsts team that played in an Amco Cup game at Sydney's Leichhardt Oval in 1979 against the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, a game Cronulla won 22–5. Brown's teammates at Leichhardt that night included pairing Mal Meninga and Chris Close, Ross Strudwick, Test John Lang, while on the interchange bench was a young forward named Wally Lewis. Brown played two State of Residence and ten State of Origin matches for Queensland between 1979 and 1986, scoring his only try for the Maroons in Game 3 of the 1983 State of Origin series at Lang Park after coming on as a replacement for Darryl Brohman who had his jaw broken after a sickening elbow from New South Wales' forward Les Boyd, a Manly teammate of Brown. Brohman had been widely tipped to make his test debut for Australia in the first Trans-Tasman Test against New Zealand at Carlaw Park in Auckland just three days later, but ironically the spot in the test team went to Brown instead. He played his last game for Queensland in Game 1 of the 1986 State of Origin series at Lang Park, but was dropped after NSW defeated Qld 22–16 in front of 33,066 fans. His standout performances for Queensland in 1983 saw him make the first of 5 test appearances for Australia in the opening test of the 1983 Trans-Tasman series against New Zealand, and would retain his spot for the second game at Lang Park. He then went on to play in the front row in the first two games of The Ashes series against Great Britain in 1984, before being relegated to the bench for what would be his final test as Australia defeated Great Britain 20–7 in the final test at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Australia retained The Ashes with a 3–0 series win over the Lions.
