After a sensational debut season in 2008, Nathan Brown played 14 AFL matches in a year which was hampered by injury.
Brown suffered a knee injury midway through the season and subsequently played three senior games after round 11.
He tried to resurrect his season through the VFL (seven matches) in the second half of the year but was unable to fully recover from his injury.
Before struck down by injury, Brown held several big names goalless including Trent Hentschel, Scott Lucas and Justin Koschitzke.
As a key position player down back, Brown will have just turned 21 by the time the 2010 season kicks off making him an extremely important component of Collingwood’s defensive structure over the ensuing years.
2009 highlights
Round one v Adelaide: Earning Copeland votes from this match, Brown played on Trent Hentschel, Kurt Tippett and Taylor Walker and held them all without a goal. The young Magpie looked set for another full season finishing the match with 13 disposals and five marks.
Round seven v St Kilda: One of the few Magpies to shine in the loss to St Kilda, Brown was simply brilliant on Justin Koschitzke keeping him goalless through 85 minutes. The feat is even made more remarkable considering the Saints kicked 20 goals for the match.
2009 AFL statistics
| G | K | H | D | M | G | B | T | C |
| 13 | 3.6/62.7% | 5.5/89.6% | 9.1 | 2.9 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 1.9 | 0.2 |
2009 VFL statistics
| G | K | H | D | M | T |
| 6 | 6.8 | 8.0 | 14.8 | 4.3 | 4 |
CTV
