Taylor was 16 when recruited from Mandurah, Western Australia, to the Richmond Football Club.[3]
The moustached Taylor, known as "BT" and "Bristle", began his VFL career with Richmond in 1980. He was a full-forward at the same club as the prolific forward Michael Roach, which limited his playing opportunities and resulted in Taylor asking to be transferred to Collingwood after the 1984 season.[3] Taylor played 43 games and kicked 156 goals at Richmond. His height was 191 cm and his weight was 102 kg.
In 1985, Taylor joined Collingwood. He kicked 100 goals in 1986 to win the Coleman 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.[4]
In 1991 Taylor became playing coach of Prahran in the VFA. 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.[5]
Towards the end of his playing career, Taylor was approached to write a weekly column in the Sunday Herald newspaper. He kept a diary throughout the 1990 season, publishing it as Black and White: The Taylor Diaries.[3]
On radio, Taylor started out with 3UZ in 1991 before becoming the lead commentator for the Triple M commentary team from 1997 when the station became the first FM radio station to broadcast Australian rules football matches.[3]
In 2010, he joined 3AW's football commentary team as chief football caller, replacing Rex Hunt who had moved to Triple M to call football on Saturday afternoons.[6][7] Taylor called the Friday night and either the Saturday or Sunday afternoon game for 3AW, alternating with Tony 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".[6] It was later confirmed Taylor would re-join Triple M to call Sunday matches. In 2016 he also appeared on The Saturday Rub alongside James Brayshaw, Danny Frawley and Damian Barrett.[8]
On television, Taylor was an AFL commentator for the Nine Network from 2002 until the station lost the broadcasting rights in 2006 to the Seven Network, he mainly called Sunday matches with Brayshaw and Garry Lyon. He remained with the station as a panellist on The Sunday Footy Show until 2010 while also being the host of AFL Teams and calling a Sunday match on Fox 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.[9]
In 2017, Taylor replaced the retiring Dennis Cometti joining Bruce McAvaney as a commentator of Friday night while also doing Sunday afternoon games for Seven, while remaining calling Saturday afternoon games for Triple M.[10]
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's Toby Nankervis.[11]
Controversy
On 12 July 2014, during the Seven Network's Saturday Night Football preview, Taylor called Geelong player Harry Taylor a "big poofter" – a colloquial, homophobic slur. The incident was widely condemned and Taylor apologised at half time.[12][13] He was stood down from his role of broadcasting a match the following afternoon on radio station 3AW.[14]
The Coleman Medal was established in 1981, with retrospective awards dating back to 1955. Prior to that, the award was known as the Leading Goalkicker Medal.
South Australia 18.17 (125) defeated Victoria 17.13 (115), at Football Park, 13 May 1986, crowd: 43,143
Western Australia 21.11 (137) d Victoria 20.14 (134), at Subiaco Oval, 8 July 1986, crowd: 39,863
