Benjamin "Ben" Stratton is an Australian rules football

Australian rules football

Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...

er with the Hawthorn Football Club

Hawthorn Football Club

The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League . The club, founded in 1902, is the youngest of the Victorian-based teams in the AFL. The team play in Brown & Gold vertically striped guernseys...

 in the Australian Football League

Australian Football League

The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...

 (AFL).

He played for the Augusta Margaret River Football Club before being recruited to East Perth

East Perth Football Club

The East Perth Football Club, nicknamed the Royals, is an Australian rules football club that is a member of the West Australian Football League...

. He then spent three years playing in the West Australian Football League

West Australian Football League

The West Australian Football League is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The WAFL is the second-most popular in the state, behind the nation-wide Australian Football League...

 (WAFL), playing 23 senior games and kicked three goals for East Perth. A medium-sized defender, Stratton was drafted from East Perth with the 46th selection in the 2009 AFL Draft

2009 AFL Draft

The 2009 AFL Draft consists of four opportunities for player acquisitions during the 2009/10 Australian Football League off-season. These were the Trade Week , the National Draft , the Pre-Season Draft and the Rookie Draft .- Trades :In the lead up to the trade week many high profile players such as...

.

Stratton made his AFL debut against Western Bulldogs in round 3 of the 2010 AFL season. Despite being a mature-age rookie, Stratton was awarded the AFL Rising Star nomination for round 14, against the same team. During the game, Stratton accumulated 12 kicks, 7 handballs, 7 marks and 4 tackles.

He dislocated his knee in the third quarter of the Hawks’ win against Richmond in round 3 of the 2011 season

2011 Hawthorn Football Club season

The Hawthorn Football Club's 2011 season is its 86th season in the Australian Football League .-Overview:After the Hawthorn Football Club endured an up-and-down season in 2010, the club recruited David Hale from North Melbourne, Cameron Bruce and Kyle Cheney from Melbourne, and in the national...

 and had surgery to repair his posterior cruciate ligament

Posterior cruciate ligament

The posterior cruciate ligament is one of the four major ligaments of the knee. It connects the posterior intercondylar area of the tibia to the medial condyle of the femur...

 and have the lateral ligament in his right knee stabilised. He missed the most of the remainder of the year, he returned to play in the last home and away game of the season against the Gold Coast Suns

Gold Coast Suns

The Gold Coast Suns were one of the eight original franchises that began play in the Senior Professional Baseball Association in 1989. The club split their home games between Miami and Pompano Beach, FL and hired future Hall of Famer Earl Weaver as manager. In the league's inaugural season, the...

 and all the 2011 final series.

External links