Brianna Brown - nee Trickett - weds in fairytale fashion on her dairy farm

A month after leading the Cowgirls to premiership glory at a wind-swept Dungowan Recreation Reserve, the former Brianna Trickett married Mitchell Brown on an "awesome" day at their Oxley Vale dairy farm, the gloomy weather leading up to the nuptials vanishing as if on cue.

With 120 people in attendance and a marquee erected, Brianna said she "couldn't have asked for a better day".

"There was so much rain leading up to it and after the wedding," she said. "And we were blessed with the most beautiful day ... Everything went to plan and we had a great day."

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Brianna met her future husband through the Dungowan Cowboys. A former centre, he was a member of the Cowboys' 2014 premiership-winning team.

"It's too hard with the farm," Brianna said of her husband's decision to hang up the boots. "We're too busy. And he just really loves working on the farm, and it's just such a liability him getting hurt."

The aforementioned description of Brianna's metamorphosis being complete was obviously playful writing; in actuality, she was well and truly a woman of the land by the time the great drought ended in 2020. The Browns bought the farm in 2017, the year the drought started.

Mitchell's parents, Wes and Julie, live on the family's old dairy farm across the Peel River on Wallamore Road. The purchase of the Oxley Vale property - which boasts 345 head for milking - was a partnership between Wes, Julie and Mitchell.

"It's been a great adventure, very busy," Brianna said of farm life. "We kind of bought it once we hit the drought, so it was very hard times. But we've come through the other side."

The farm was now "beautiful", said Brianna, a mum to Braxton, 6, and Huxley, who turns two in January. "It's been some of the best years we've ever had, the last two years."

Brianna and Mitchell became acquainted when her family moved from the Central Coast to the North West in 2007, after her mother, Nicole, landed a teaching job at Carinya Christian School, where she is sill employed.

The family settled in Woolomin and connected with the Cowboys. Brianna's father, John, was on the Cowboys' committee, while she is a Cowgirls foundation player and a member of the side's exclusive 100-game club.

She had expected to step down as coach after last season's 12-10 golden-point grand final win over North Tamworth.

"We had no one really put their name down for it," she said of the coaching role. "So I just had a bit of a talk with my husband, and I decided I'd do it one more year."

Brianna said that every time she thought about the grand final win it "brings back great memories".

And while the Cowgirls have lost some key personnel from that side - including 2022 Group 4 league tag player of the year Georgia Horniman, and Karen and Phoebe Porter - Brianna said they had "picked up some really great" young players.

"So pretty excited about that," she added.

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