Brown to miss remainder of 2023 season

Hawthorn defender Catherine Brown will miss the remainder of the 2023 season after rupturing her ACL.

Brown went down with a knee injury at training during the week before scans confirmed the worst, with additional damage to her MCL.

The 29-year-old will undergo surgery in the coming weeks, marking an end to her 2023 campaign.

Hawthorn General Manager of Football Operations Max Bailey said it was an unfortunate conclusion to Brown’s season.

“She is an important member of our leadership group, a much-loved teammate and an integral part of our backline.

“As a club, we will support Catherine through her rehab journey as best we can.”

READ MORE: Newly appointed Brett Ratten says he hopes to influence the Hawthorn coaches, but also help fast track the players in 2024.

The Hawks announced last month that Ratten would return to the brown and gold as Head of Coaching Performance & Development.

Ratten said his new role would entail several responsibilities, including working closely with Senior Coach Sam Mitchell and mentoring the broader coaching group, while helping to develop Hawthorn’s young list.

“A big part of it will be working alongside Sam and helping to take a bit of the load off him, there are some high demands when it comes to senior coaching,'” Ratten said.

“Sam has some great skills – that’s why he became the coach – so let’s keep honing in on them.

“I’ll take a little bit of that off him, work with the coaches really closely to help support them, maybe even having a bit of a different look at the game plan and how we are going about it.

“There will be some big responsibilities around game day – whether I’m on the boundary or up in the coaches box.

“But then there’s the aspect that I don’t want to lose, and that’s coaching the players – I still love coaching, and I have a lot to offer in that space.

“I don’t just want to be sitting back, I want to get my hands dirty, get out there and work with the players and see if we can develop and fast track some of them.”

Ratten re-joins Hawthorn after a previous six-year stint where he played an important role as an assistant coach during the highly successful three-peat era of 2013 to 2015.

He said he was confident in the investment the club has made in developing its young list as it looks to build its way back to contend for premiership success again.

“To have watched whats happened over the last couple of years, especially under Sam, and the growth of the players and where the club’s heading is something that really attracted me to come back and be part of it,” Ratten said.

“That’s the goal (premierships), but it’s about enjoying the journey along the way too.

“That was a key memory that I had throughout those three premierships, they were all different years and involved a different journey for the team and the players.

“Hopefully we can try and get the opportunity again – that’s what the club did through that era, just putting itself in the position for a chance to win it, and they did it over and over again.”