AFL: Cats champion Tom Hawkins has announced, he is set to retire at the end of the 2024 season.
As Tom Hawkins was walking out the front door of his farm near Geelong on Tuesday morning, his eldest daughter Arabella pleaded with him to reconsider his decision to retire.
At the start of this season Hawkins, who passed his great mate Joel Selwood’s record of 355 for Geelong in May, considered himself a 30-70 proposition of continuing on into 2025. Conversations with close mates including Selwood, who was his housemate at a host family in his first season in 2007, followed before the tough chat with his kids Arabella, Primrose and Henry at the farm early on Tuesday.
At a press conference celebrating his 359-game career and pending retirement, his grandfather Fred le Deux, who was a ruckman and forward in the 1950s, was in attendance. When Hawkins arrived at Geelong at the tail-end of 2006 as a father-son recruit, there was significant publicity surrounding him, with hopes he could prove a saviour for a club that had not won a premiership since 1963.
He played in a VFL premiership in 2007 and spent significant time in the reserves for the first couple of years as he learned to deal with “the gorillas” who roamed the backlines of clubs. But his mum Jennie reminded him that young adults mature at different rates and that it was important to remain patient. His time would come. And it did in spades from 2011 onwards.Aside from the grieving period associated with his mum’s illness and death, Hawkins battled a back injury so severe in 2013 and 2014 there were periods where he could not bend over to tie up his shoes, nor get out of bed.
A couple of seasons before Hawkins joined the club, dual-Geelong premiership coach Mark Thompson brought the shy teenager into the Cats’ rooms after a win and told the senior footballers in attendance that it would not be too long until they were playing alongside him. Tom Hawkins and father Jack Hawkins pose during a media opportunity at GMHBA Stadium on August 06, 2024 in Geelong, Australia. Hawkins’ eyebrows were raised as much as anyone’s on Tuesday morning when Richmond announced champion Dustin Martin had played his last game shortly before his own retirement became public.
“Martin did what champions do … and I have no doubt Martin’s magic boosted Richmond’s belief,” Hawkins says in his autobiography. Geelong fans might well say the same thing about Hawkins, whose deeds after half-time in the 2011 grand final against Collingwood delivered the Cats a third flag in five years.
It was not until 2022 when that occurred, with the champion Cats’ forward dynamic early in the thrashing of Sydney when snapping the first two goals from boundary throw-ins, while Selwood capped his remarkable career with a fantastic goal on the run in the dying stages. “I’m concentrating on what I can do to get back and help and there’ll be a way I can help in some capacity,” he said.
It is also certain, given his expertise as a forward but also in the ruck, that he will be called on to pass on advice to fledgling forwards and key-position players in the future as well.
Tom Hawkins Senior Footballers Nick Brushfield Australian Skipper Father-Son Rule List Manager Football Club John Pub Feed Tommy Looks St Kilda Intercept Marking Role Quarter Goal Fred Le Deux Chris Scott Brilliant Games Hype Surrounding Grand Final Victoria Andrew Mackie The Gabba Premiership Coach CATS DATE Patrick Dangerfield Joel Selwood Host Family Finley Footy Club Press Conference Boundary Throw-Ins Mark Thompson Jennie Courtney Walsh Ben Reid Steve Hocking New South Wales Finals Series Media Roles James Podsiadly Port Adelaide Father-Son Recruit PREMIERSHIP PUSH Oceania South Australia Match Back Eldest Daughter Fyansford Geelong Cats Injury Problems Real Estate Office Jack Club President Australia And New Zealand Three-Time Premiership Dustin Martin Tony Lockett Ashley Haynes Foot Problem Doing One-Year Contract Shoes Courtesy Team Win Richmond Players Supporter Watching Breakout Performance Cameron Mooney Shannon Neal Home Town Australia Emma Fantastic Goal Queensland
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