AFL great Brett Ratten makes heartbreaking admission about daughter’s health battle

A successful footy player and coach, the Carlton great has opened up about his daughter’s debilitating health battle.

Beloved footy figure Brett Ratten has spoken candidly about the devastating health battle faced by his daughter Tilly.

Ratten is a Carlton great, winning a flag and three best and fairest awards across 255 games with the club from 1990 to 2003.

Watch every game of the NAB AFL Women’s Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited time offer.

He then moved into coaching, enjoying stints with the Blues, St Kilda and North Melbourne.

While the popular 53-year-old found success in the AFL world, he has also suffered awful family obstacles away from footy.

His 16-year-old son Cooper died in a car accident east of Melbourne back in 2015.

His 12-year-old daughter Tilly then began suffering debilitating seizures four years later.

Brett Ratten posing with his family back in 2019, (left to right) Georgia, Jo, Tilly, Brett, Will and Tanner. (Photo by Kelly Defina/Getty Images)

Ratten has opened up about his daughter’s condition on AFL.com.au podcast, Between Us.

“Her seizures are a little bit different,” Ratten said. “We (initially) didn’t know if it was absentee epilepsy or focal epilepsy.

“Her head went to the side and then you would see the whites of her eyes and she would stop and freeze and pause for 20 or 30 seconds.

“She would have up to 30 a day, but then when the medication came in, it started to affect her balance, so she started to fall over.”

A tough midfielder in his playing days, Ratten made the heartbreaking comment that he wished he could have taken on his little girl’s struggles before they had a breakthrough.

Ratten’s last AFL role was with North Melbourne in the 2023 season. (Photo by Steve Bell/Getty Images)

“Your heart goes out to think ‘could you give it to me’ and then I can deal with it,” he said.

“But you can’t. The good part was we found out what it was, so then you can start the process of trying to deal with it.

“We were quite fortunate it took around three months and then the seizures started to stop. That was great.

“At one point the medication kicked in and the seizures stopped and we’ve been fortunate since.”

In the early hours of August 16, 2015, Cooper Ratten was in the back seat of a car being driven by a fellow teenager when it veered off the road and crashed at Yarra Glen.

The funeral for Cooper Ratten back in 2015. Photo: Andrew Tauber

A promising junior footballer, Cooper’s death devastated an entire community and Ratten said he still has moments when he struggles to deal with his passing.

“Some days I can say his name and nothing, I’m OK,” Ratten said. “And then other days I say his name and it’s waterworks everywhere.

“He’s not with us, but he’s with us every day.”

Ratten said he has no plans to return to coaching in the AFL, after finishing up with the Kangaroos in 2023.

He is raising awareness for the Epilepsy Foundation, with the annual Walk for Epilepsy event currently underway and already raising over $335,000 this year.

Originally published as AFL great Brett Ratten makes heartbreaking admission about daughter’s health battle