AFL
11 months ago
Why there is no need for Geelong to be concerned about Hawkins’ goalless month
By Andrew Slevison
A trio of V/AFL greats have leapt to the defence of Geelong champion Tom Hawkins.
Nathan Buckley, Garry Lyon and Tim Watson all believe the Cats great still has plenty to offer Chris Scott’s side, despite the fact he’s gone goalless in his last four matches.
It comes after criticism directed at Hawkins from Matthew Lloyd who suggested the 35-year-old’s form is a “major concern” for Geelong and that he is in “trouble” after losing his speed.
But even amidst the worst goal slump of his sparkling 354-game career, Hawkins still has a vital role to play for the Cats, according to Buckley.
“I’m not concerned about Tom Hawkins at all,” the Collingwood legend said on SEN Breakfast.
“Chris Scott and the Geelong coaching staff are at the cutting edge of new trends in the game.
“I think that they may probably make the way before most other teams. The latest trend in forward play is to get your talls high and to let your smalls go to work getting back inside 50.
“Tom Hawkins plays a pivotal role and he is absolutely reliable and dependable in this. He will be at the right place at the right time, he’s a player that you can go to if you feel pressured in the back half.
“They go central a lot to him, he draws a lot of attention, and it takes more than one, two or three blokes to stop him from marking the ball. All of a sudden you’ve got two free Geelong players at ground level.
“Tom Hawkins doesn’t even need to possess the ball to play his role in Geelong’s side.”
Lyon says a patch of underperformance from a man in his mid-30s is no surprise.
He feels that the three-time premiership player and 11-time leading goal kicker will still be of great value to the Cats as the 2024 season progresses.
“He’s just going through what every single player who has played the game goes through, and that is as you get older things get harder,” said Melbourne champion Lyon.
“He will be a Hall of Famer obviously. He is one of the great full-forwards I’ve seen play the game, but age is getting him.
“He’ll still have his moments this year. I’m not writing him off for the year.
“I watched Dusty (Martin) on the weekend. He just keeps finding the footy because Dusty’s Dusty, but he’s not doing the Dusty stuff because age is slowly wearing him down.
“In the end, age gets everyone.”
Lyon added: “They’ll manage Hawkins, he had a week off recently.
“He’ll probably play four on, one off, something like that, and by September they’ll hope he’s still producing and that his body is holding up.
“I think the discussion on Tom is really simple. He’s got value to that team still and at some stage he won’t.”
Watson insists this downturn is a very normal aspect of the natural aging process.
“It is such a typical, normal, usual thing that at some point in time during the season we are talking about somebody who is coming towards the end,” the former Essendon star said further.
“The greatest that have ever played this game - Leigh Matthews, Wayne Carey, Gary Ablett, John Coleman - go through the list of any great legend of the game, at some point in time there was a discussion about the fact that they were no longer what they once were.
“Because age got them or injury gets them.”
Hawkins has still kicked two lots of four goals this season for a tally of nine from seven matches. However, his average of 1.3 goals per games is his lowest some 2010.
He has booted 790 goals in his lengthy career which started back in 2007.
This weekend against Port Adelaide he will equal Joel Selwood’s club record of 355 games.
