GOLD Coast defender Campbell Brown's season is over after he fractured his pelvis tackling Cat James Kelly in yesterday's 150-point thrashing by Geelong.

The Suns' deputy vice-captain was running back with his opponent as the play continued 50m away when he suddenly collapsed in agony. He left the ground on a stretcher and was taken immediately to Geelong Hospital for scans.

Brown told the Sunday Herald Sun's Craig Hutchison that a tackle he laid on midfielder Kelly caused the season-ending pelvis injury.

The tough defender said the injury happened a minute earlier than when he first knew.

"Happened in the tackle on James Kelly a minute before I went down," Brown said.

"His knee hit me in hip in tackle.

"Ran on it and thought it was a corkie and then when I went to accelerate it cracked and my leg gave way."

Brown's father, Mal, a guest at Geelong's president's luncheon, rushed to comfort his son.

Gold Coast coach Guy McKenna said he did not see the incident that ended the season for one of his most important players.

"He has a broken pelvis and I don't think they can put a cast on that, so I would say his season will be over," McKenna said.

"Knowing Browny, he probably thinks it will be two weeks and he'll be right.

"It was sad because he typifies what we needed down here. Given our performance against Geelong at Metricon Stadium (in Round 10), I think they came out swinging physically in a good sense.

"It was a fairly physical game early on and I didn't actually see (what happened to Brown). From all reports he got crunched, he got hit and, typical of Browny, he wanted to soldier on and that's when he found something not right.

"That unerring sort of bone sensation rattling in his body, and so he collapsed to the ground and had to come off."

With Gary Ablett sitting in the stands, the loss of Brown after 15 minutes rattled the Suns, who found themselves 94 points down at halftime after failing to score in the second quarter while letting the Cats kick 10 goals. There was improvement in the third term - the Cats outscored the Suns by only three points - before things got messy again late.

The end result was the Suns' lowest score and biggest loss in their short history. But McKenna said the experience would be invaluable.

"The opportunity for our players to play against a side like that down here, I think of all the toughest challenges you are going to have, down here against a side like that in cold conditions is probably the biggest task we will ever face," he said.

"That exposure for our young kids, to experience that and learn from that is fantastic.

"In patches they showed they can match it with the best side going around, and they did that for a half against Collingwood up at home.

"What you learn about the group is who is prepared to compete away from home, where it is the hardest.

"I went through this as a player at West Coast. I still remember kicking one goal in an AFL game at Windy Hill.

"Are you scarred by it? I don't think you're scarred by it, but you're hurt by it.

"But it didn't stop us (the Eagles) from going on to win premierships and spend 10 years in the finals."

Defender Jeremy Taylor, who started the game on a rampant Steve Johnson, will also miss the rest of the season. The teenager is scheduled to have groin surgery next week.

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