How a ‘karma bus’ delivered footy’s worst injury - and delayed a dynasty by more than a decadeMay 27, 2020
David Zita
FOX SPORTSAfter all, who couldn’t following a leg break like that.
“I still remember it hurting like hell,” he told foxfooty.com.au.
“I’ve never felt pain like it, looking down at my leg bending the wrong way.”
Wednesday marks exactly 15 years since the former Tiger and Bulldog suffered one of the worst injuries ever seen on an AFL field — an injury that came when he was at the peak of his powers.
After a wooden spoon season in 2004, Richmond burst out of the blocks in the opening nine rounds of 2005, securing seven wins heading into their Round 10 clash with fellow top-four fancy Melbourne.
Brown’s season had him pegged as a potential Brownlow Medal winner. He’d performed well for the Tigers since coming across from the Bulldogs at the end of 2003, but he went stratospheric to start 2005.
Playing as a small forward rotating through the midfield, Brown had kicked 32 goals and averaged 20.2 disposals in the opening nine rounds. He could lay genuine claim to being the competition’s best player at the time.
Coming off a four-goal haul against the then-powerhouse Brisbane Lions at the Gabba, Brown and Coleman Medal fancy Matthew Richardson allowed themselves to do that dreaded thing in football: Look ahead.
“To be honest we started to believe we were real contenders that year,” Brown said.
“We had a player function at the Montague Hotel in South Melbourne and to be honest we’d had a skinful that night.
“We were walking from the Montague to the old Motel which is obviously now Dane Swan’s new place, and I think ‘Richo’ was maybe leading the Coleman with 34 and I was second in the Coleman.
“I think we were telling all the boys that by the end of the year I was going to be a Brownlow Medallist and Richo was going to be a Coleman Medallist.
“Maybe we just got a little bit ahead of ourselves and the karma bus hit me the next week. I don’t think the world works that way, but it’s a funny story to look back on. We were flying but I think six days later I wasn’t going to play again for the year.”
If the ‘karma bus’ did come, it was delayed on that Friday night against Melbourne.
Brown continued to set the competition alight, gathering 18 disposals and slotting two goals before it happened.
Brown picked up an errant handball from teammate Wayne Campbell in Richmond’s forward 50 and went to snap for his third goal. Then Dees defender Matthew Whelan fell across Brown’s right leg in an attempt to smother.
The result: A broken tibia, broken fibula and one of the most sickening sites ever witnessed on a footy field.
“I remember pretty much everything up until they gave me that green sucker (a strong pain-relieving drug commonly know as the ‘green whistle’), which I didn’t get until I got into the ambulance. So I didn’t get it for about 25 minutes,” Brown recalled.
“I remember Wayne Campbell gave me this real sh***y handball, which if it had’ve got to me on the full, everything would’ve been fine.
Nathan Brown seconds after breaking his tibia and fibula bones in his right leg. He would miss the rest of the season.Source: News Corp Australia“I still remember it hurting like hell. I’ve never felt pain like it and looking down at my leg bending the wrong way.
“Then all of a sudden the doctor told me the shock takes over and starts to protect your body and the pain went away. I had Richo look over me and go, ‘you OK’? I said ‘ah nah, I don’t think so’. Then Wayne came over and said ‘sorry about the handball’.”
While Brown still thinks about the injury “every now and again”, Campbell doesn’t allow himself to think back to that night too often.
“I don’t recall the handball and I certainly haven’t watched it back because I certainly don’t want to,” Campbell told foxfooty.com.au.
“I don’t reckon I looked at his leg because I think there was enough looks on people’s faces to suggest don’t look.
“He’d just been playing so well, he was on fire.”
An X-Ray of Nathan Brown's injury from his knee.Source: News Corp AustraliaWhile Eddie McGuire and Garry Lyon watched on in horror from the commentary booth, along with all others at the ground and in their living rooms across the country, Brown was remarkably stoic while being stretchered off the field, almost looking non-plussed about sustaining one of the most gruesome injuries in the league’s history.
Reflecting on it now, Brown says that was more down to the shock that had set in rather than any desire to put on a brave face.
“Going off, everyone says ‘you were so stoic, you didn't show any pain’. But at that stage, funnily enough, I didn't have much pain, so I went off quite calm,” he said.
“It wasn't until in the rooms where (I felt pain), because the leg was six inches shorter than the other one because the bone had gone up on itself. They had to pull the leg and realign it in the rooms … the pain on that occasion was extraordinary.
“Then I’ve got ‘BT’ (Brian Taylor), who’s burst into the door and tried to get an interview for either Channel 9 or Triple M.
The famous shot of Nathan Brown being carried off the ground.Source: News Limited“The next thing I remember I’m in the ambulance and I’ve got the green sucker on. I’m great mates with Simon Garlick and I looked at my phone after I got it out of my bag in the ambulance and there were text messages from a few people, but the one on top was Simon Garlick.
“The last thing I remember was responding to Simon Garlick’s text message before I woke up in the hospital.”
Brown can still recall the touching image that greeted him when he woke up
“The first person I saw in my hospital room was Andrew Krakouer,” he said.
“I’d had a great relationship with him at the time, we were rotating forward-midfield and he was in tears. I woke up and I was still high as a kite but I still remember Andy Krakouer being the first person I saw.”
From the moment Brown was injured, the game against Melbourne turned sour and Richmond’s season derailed. The Tigers would win just three more games for the season before Brown’s return in 2006.
Nathan Brown wearing a support harness while using treadmill on his comeback to training.Source: News LimitedBrown’s comeback would turn out to be bittersweet. He was able to return to the football field but was never able to return to the form that had him on track to retire as an all-time great.
With the benefit of 15 years to ease the pain, Brown is much more matter-of-fact about the fallout than others might’ve been.
“I think about it every now and again,” he said.
“It was a pretty big moment in my life and a pretty big moment in my career. It certainly slowed me down and clearly I was never the same player after that.
“Sometimes you sit there and you think what could the next five years have been if you hadn’t done it, but it is what it is.
“We play a contact sport, I’d had a pretty good run up until then and it was just about my first injury ever and it was a pretty bad one.
“All of a sudden (when he got back), I felt like I was getting tackled a lot more. I felt like I wasn’t getting that break on players that I usually did. I reckon it might’ve been one or two per cent, but in our game one or two per cent is massive … you get closed down pretty quick.”
Still, rather than bemoan what could’ve been in 2005 after a blistering start for his Tigers, Brown cherishes the dream run leading up to Round 10, rather than the nightmare that followed it.
“It was the most enjoyable football I think I had in my career,” he said.
“It was just so much fun. We were winning all the time and the crowds were massive, Richmond supporters we were getting 60,000, 70,000 each week — it was just a great time.
“‘Richo’ was playing well, we had Greg Stafford and Trent Noble dominating the ruck, Mark Coughlan was flying, the whole club was just going really well.”
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