Benjamin Stratton (born 1 March 1989) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er who played for the

Hawthorn Football Club The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Mulgrave, Victoria, that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was founded in 1902 in the inner-east suburb of Hawt ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(AFL).

Early career

Stratton was educated at Dunsborough Primary School and MacKillop Catholic College in Busselton. He played for the Augusta Margaret River Football Club before being recruited to

East Perth East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sunrise, Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from ...

. He then spent three years playing in the

West Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL) is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting from March to September, ...

(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.

AFL career

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 The AFL Rising Star is an Australian rules football award presented annually to the player adjudged the best young player in the Australian Football League (AFL) for the year. It was first presented in the 1993 season, and was won by Nathan Buc ...

nomination for round 14, against the Bulldogs once more. He dislocated his knee in the third quarter of the Hawks’ win against Richmond in round 3 of the 2011 season and had surgery to repair his

posterior cruciate ligament The posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) is a ligament in each knee of humans and various other animals. It works as a counterpart to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). It connects the posterior intercondylar area of the tibia to the medial cond ...

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 The Gold Coast Suns is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club is based on Queensland's Gold Coast in the suburb of Carrara. The club has been playing in the AFL since th ...

and all the 2011 final series. After a solid 2012 season where he played every game, he was singled out for praise by coach Alastair Clarkson after performing a match saving tackle on Adelaide's

Patrick Dangerfield Patrick Dangerfield (born 5 April 1990) is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He previously played for the Adelaide Football Club. Drafted by Adelaide in 2007, Dangerfi ...

in the Preliminary Final. However, the Hawks lost the

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

to Sydney by 10 points, with Stratton having a quiet game, but restricting Sam Reid to one goal. Stratton again played every game in 2013, including notching up his 50th consecutive game in the first qualifying final against Sydney. Stratton again played in the

, with Hawthorn defeating Fremantle and granting him his first premiership. Stratton's consecutive run was broken in 2014 after a hamstring injury forced him to miss the first 4 rounds of the year. He would return to the side, playing consistent football. Hawthorn would triumph in the 2014 Grand Final over the

Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a reser ...

, giving Stratton his second premiership. Stratton played all but one game in the 2015 season, generally performing well and picking up his third premiership after Hawthorn defeated

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

in the

. Despite suffering from a pectoral injury in round 20, Stratton was regarded as having a good 2016 season, drawing especial praise for his performance in round 3 on

Western Bulldogs The Western Bulldogs are a professional Australian rules football team that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition. Founded in 1877 as the Footscray Football Club, and based in West Footscray in the o ...

forward

Jake Stringer Jake Stringer (born 25 April 1994) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for the Essendon Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He previously played for the Western Bulldogs from 2013 to 2017. Stringer was selec ...

. Stratton had a good start to 2017, but he injured his posterior cruciate ligament once again in round 8, sidelining him for the rest of the season. Stratton played his 150th game against

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

in round 4 of the 2018 season. Stratton had a decent year in 2018, finishing seventh in Hawthorn's best and fairest medal tally.

Captaincy

He was appointed captain of the club at the start of the 2019 season. In round 13 Stratton was suspended for repeatedly pinching Essendon opponent

Orazio Fantasia Orazio Maurice Fantasia ( or ; born 14 September 1995) is a professional Australian rules footballer playing for Port Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was recruited by the Essendon Football Club with the 55 ...

as well as stomping on

Shaun McKernan Shaun McKernan (born 1 September 1990) is a former Australian rules footballer having played for the St Kilda Football Club, Essendon Football Club and the Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). AFL career Adelaid ...

. He received a one week suspension for each incident. Stratton was the subject of a considerable negative reaction for these actions, with Hawthorn CEO (Justin Reeves) declaring that he had 'let himself and the club down'. On the 14th of September 2020, it was announced that Stratton would retire from the AFL following the 2020 season. He played his final game for Hawthorn the following Sunday in a 108-57 win over the Gold Coast Suns.

Statistics

, - ,

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2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

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2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

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2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

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2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

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2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

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2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

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2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

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2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

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2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

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2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

, , , , 24 , 14 , , 1 , , 0 , , 66 , , 55 , , 121 , , 41 , , 17 , , 0.1 , , 0.0 , , 4.7 , , 3.9 , , 8.6 , , 2.9 , , 1.2 , , 0 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, CareerBen Stratton's player profile at AFL Tables
/ref> ! 202 !! 2 !! 6 !! 1372 !! 1050 !! 2422 !! 824 !! 487 !! 0.0 !! 0.0 !! 6.8 !! 5.2 !! 12.0 !! 4.1 !! 2.4 !! 0 Notes

Honours and achievements

Team * 3× AFL premiership player ():

* 2× Minor premiership ():

Individual * Hawthorn captain: 2019–2020 * Lethal Award: 2018 * best clubman: 2015 * most consistent player: 2013 * best first year player (debut season): 2010 * AFL Rising Star nominee:

* life member

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stratton, Ben Hawthorn Football Club players Hawthorn Football Club Premiership players 1989 births Living people Australian rules footballers from Western Australia East Perth Football Club players Box Hill Football Club players People from Margaret River, Western Australia Augusta-Margaret River Football Club players Three-time VFL/AFL Premiership players