\n Brodie McLaughlin suffers a major setback to his bid to earn a lifeline with Hawthorn after breaking his foot at training\n <\/p>\n
Brodie McLaughlin kicks at goal during the 2025 VFL Round 14 match between Williamstown and Sandringham at DSV Stadium. Picture: Craig Dooley\/AFL Photos<\/p>\n
BRODIE McLaughlin’s pursuit of a second chance in the AFL has suffered a devastating blow early in his pre-season supplemental selection period (SSP) trial with Hawthorn.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old underwent foot surgery on Monday after breaking his foot at the Kennedy Community Centre last Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scans revealed a stress fracture in his foot led to the nasty break, which will sideline the key forward for a significant period of time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hawthorn invited the former Gold Coast key forward to trial with Sam Mitchell’s squad when the SSP opened on November 24.\u00a0<\/p>\n
McLaughlin spent the 2023 season on the rookie list at the Suns after being signed via the SSP, but was delisted without playing a senior game after just one season despite winning the Jim ‘Frosty’ Miller Medal after kicking 55 goals in the VFL.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brodie McLaughlin poses after winning the Frosty Miller Medal for leading goalkicker during the 2025 VFL and VFLW Awards. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
The 193cm forward won his second VFL goal kicking award this year after slotting 71.40 for Williamstown in his second season with the Seagulls.<\/p>\n
McLaughlin was set to return to suburban football in 2026 before the Hawks offered an audition for another chance to hunt an AFL debut.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now the Hawks will help him recover from what is set to be a lengthy rehabilitation period.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Former North Melbourne defender Flynn Perez was invited to trial last week after helping Sturt win the SANFL premiership in September.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 24-year-old played 24 games across four seasons with the Kangaroos before being delisted at the end of 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Flynn Perez in action during North Melbourne’s training session at Arden Street Ground on August 2, 2023. Picture: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Ex-Fremantle wingman Ethan Stanley is also auditioning with the AFL squad after returning to Box Hill in 2025 after being delisted following 18 months in Perth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hawthorn can trial up to four players during the pre-season and have two spots to fill on the rookie list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brodie McLaughlin suffers a major setback to his bid to earn a lifeline with Hawthorn after breaking his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,85,83],"class_list":["post-334322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}