Greatest ever Hawthorn mature-age recruit from another club?

[Todman]

B: Austin McCrabb Todd Ridley Matthew Dent
HB: Darren Baxter Nathan Chapman Barry Young
C: Andrew Demetriou Ben Ross Simon Cox
HF: Bo Nixon Kingsley Hunter Leon Higgins
F: Simon Minton-Connell Brett O'Farrell Shayne Stevenson
R: Randall Bone Mark Bunn Jon Hassall
Inter: Tim Allen Nick Stone Ricky Nixon Broc McCauley
Coach: Cameron Bruce

Bit top heavy on the bench!

I'd drop Simon Cox for Justin Crawford.

 

[garyayresmullet]

Not a lot of recognition here for Russell Greene. 3 premierships, 300 games, all Australian and best & fairest. Hard to split him with Burger and Gibbo.....superstars.

Here here, Russell Greene was the Shaun Burgoyne of the early 80's.

After 120 games with the perennial losers at st kinda in 1980, he switched to the Hawks, gave up the booze and went on to become a key member of the most dominant midfield The Hawks have ever fielded.

greene went on to play 180 games for the Hawks, was a member of the 83, 86 and 88 premiership sides, was 1984 b&f and league mvp winning the Leigh Matthews trophy.

Did I mention he was also All Australian and captained the Big V......an absolute legend .

 

[Dewnior]

Danny Jacobs can think himself unlucky to miss out. Wade skipper?

Really highlights what a difference it makes when you have the wright people running your clubs recruiting. ( one of clarksons great strengths is that he knows who can play and who cant ).

I see what you did there, nice.

 

[DannyJ]

Danny Jacobs

 

[HairyO]

Burgoyne, Gibbo, Lake, Platten, Salmon

Now... did I list them by importance or did I list them alphabetically?

YOU DECIDE !!

2nd tier

Dew, Greene, Guerra, Hale, Poppy.

Everyone should go hit up the "5 minutes of Stewie Dew" youtube video from the 2008 GF. And after that watch the Poppy pass to Gunston in the 2015 GF.

In a few years we may well have Frawley on this list.

I dont think its a surprise that 7 out of the 10 have been Clarko picks. Truly the greatest football mind of the modern era and quite possibly ever.

 

[MrFujiMoto]

The flip side of that is that without gibbo lake would have looked slow and lumbering and not had the freedom to role off his man and try and take intercept marks.

Interesting thread for another day - duo's who make each other look better/worse.

Lake would have done that anyway, always had, always did and always would have done. Lake is a seriously underrated footballer, not sure why but I always saw him as an upgrade on Scarlett due to him having every attribute Scarlo had but being better one on one. Scarlett seems to be the one everyone thinks was the prototype modern FB. I bet if the Doggies won a couple of Flags over lakes time he would have been rated above Scarlett during the time they both played finals (07 - 11)

 

[Garroll]

B: Austin McCrabb Todd Ridley Matthew Dent
HB: Darren Baxter Nathan Chapman Barry Young
C: Andrew Demetriou Ben Ross Simon Cox
HF: Bo Nixon Kingsley Hunter Leon Higgins
F: Simon Minton-Connell Brett O'Farrell Shayne Stevenson
R: Randall Bone Mark Bunn Jon Hassall
Inter: Tom Allen Nick Stone Ricky Nixon Broc McCauley
Coach: Cameron Bruce

Bit top heavy on the bench!

Rhan Hooper could come in for Broc McCauley (was a handy rookie pick-up but stopped playing due to injuries and a stockbroking career).

 

[Collins-Langford-Ayres]

Gibbo won two Crimmins, 3 flags and an AA in his time.

How do the others compare?

 

[MrFujiMoto]

Another interesting thing when looking at the recruits Clarko has brought to the table, and the advantages of taking risks -

Stewart Dew - No other person in football would have gone anywhere near Dew. it is not like he had left the AFL, spent two years in the SANFL or VFL and was wanting to re-ignite his career. Clarko went to Vegas, found a 130kg beast living the life of a non stop eating and partying machine and coaxed him back into an elite training and sporting environment for the express purpose of helping win a flag. It was a massive risk that paid the ultimate reward. Dew looked nothing like any other AFL footballer since the 70s, and that was in the GF, after a full year of playing and training. He looked like a suburban full forward and played arguably the best 5 minutes of any GF in history.
Brian Lake - Again - No one (including his former club) wanted him. He was 31+, had degenerative knees, was washed up, a nightmare personality around the club (according to some reports) and he was also carrying about 5 - 10kgs on top of the weight we wanted him to play at. Somehow again Clarko managed to talk the club into getting him and he proved to be the missing piece to our dynasty puzzle. he ended his career with 3 premierships and a NS medal while at Hawthorn. It could not have been scripted better.
Shaun Burgoyne - Left Port under a cloud of mistrust due to the captaincy issues that year, was sent packing by all port supporters and was seen to be disloyal and past it anyway. He definitely had knee issues as we know with his start with us. Port did FA to keep him, we swooped and picked up one of the best clutch players we have had at the club over our most successful period in club history. He is the best (probably alongside j Selwood) break glass player in the league. When Clarko needs things fixed he sends Burgoyne to wherever the problem lies (Or burgers goes himself) and presto, problem is usually solved. We have up plenty to get him, too much by most accounts at the time, and got what we needed and what most clubs would now probably pay double for if they had their chance again
Josh Gibson - Was being forced from the North backline and into the midfield due to rising talent (Grima, Tarrant etc) and his perceived lack of size. he wanted to play in defence, we saw him as a rebounding defender that could play tall if needed and picked up a 2 time B&F winner and the leagues best 3rd man up defender. Due to the poor season he had the year before coming over plenty of people thought this was a ridiculous pick up and that he would barely last his initial contract.
David Hale - I am sure 15 other clubs that the time laughed at us over this. hale was struggling for game time, was being played out of position and looked laconic and lumbering. He was just an average footballer at best and would maybe serve as a half decent backup to play a few games when needed over the next 3 years. What a player he turned out to be. With the sub rule coming into effect, he is the prototype ruck forward that was needed by every other club that wouldn't have a bar of him. Adequate at nullifying opposition rucks, decent mark around the ground, excellent shot for goal, and a courageous tall forward is what he turned himself into in the brown and gold. an absolute steal and delivered ten times what anyone outside of Hawthorn ever expected he would.

I guess the theme here is that all of these pick ups were heavily questioned and doubted by most in the media and all of them have paid massive dividends. Clarko and Wrighty see things that no one else does (Hale, Dew, Gibbo), the board and football department back them in things that other boards would never contemplate (Lake, Dew, Burgers) and it all goes to the reason other clubs are envious of our recruiting of opposition players over the last 10 years.

 

[Mitchell54]

Hawthorn team of recruits(will need a lot of help):

B: Croad Lake Gibson
HB: Jacobs Frawley Guerra
C: Greene ? Dew
HF: Poupolo Gunston
F: Platten Salmon Hale
Foll: McEvoy Burgoyne
Int: Smith Rehn

I don't have much knowledge on the 20th century players so if people can fill the gaps or maybe move the players around.

 

[Brishawk]

Such a great and tough question. Fortunately we didn't have to choose between the likes of Lake, Gibbo and Burgoyne. Don't think we win three flags without ALL of them.

 

[jenniferHAWKinS]

Rhan Hooper could come in for Broc McCauley (was a handy rookie pick-up but stopped playing due to injuries and a stockbroking career).

Thought of Rhan Hooper after I had already Submitted the team. Considered Carl Peterson also.

 

[moginie]

B: Austin McCrabb Todd Ridley Matthew Dent
HB: Darren Baxter Nathan Chapman Barry Young
C: Andrew Demetriou Ben Ross Simon Cox
HF: Bo Nixon Kingsley Hunter Leon Higgins
F: Simon Minton-Connell Brett O'Farrell Shayne Stevenson
R: Randall Bone Mark Bunn Jon Hassall
Inter: Tom Allen Nick Stone Ricky Nixon Broc McCauley
Coach: Cameron Bruce

Bit top heavy on the bench!

Team needs more Stephen Allender.

Those who are including Puopolo or Platten should include Stratton on the list as well.

 

[Bedi]

Though he left on bad terms, Everitt was very good for us

Burgoyne closely followed by Lake and Gibson, then a gap to Salmon.

Spider Everitt would be a distant last.

huh, Everitt was an awesome player for us. Sure he left on bad terms, but fact remains he's a Peter Crimmins medalist and AA

 

[eldorado]

Honourable mention for Stevic...

 

[MrFujiMoto]

Hawthorn team of recruits(will need a lot of help):

B: Croad Lake Gibson
HB: Jacobs Frawley Guerra
C: Greene ? Dew
HF: Poupolo Gunston
F: Platten Salmon Hale
Foll: McEvoy Burgoyne
Int: Smith Rehn

I don't have much knowledge on the 20th century players so if people can fill the gaps or maybe move the players around.

I think the OP meant from another AFL club which would rule out Smith, Poppy and Platten. Unless you mean Joel Smith. i also wouldn't have Croad due to the fact we initially drafted him, lent him to Freo for Hodgey and Mitch, and then got him back.

B: Gilham - Lake - Gibson
HB: Cheney - Frawley - Guerra
C: J Smith - Simpkin - Greene
HF: Gunston - Barker - Dew
F: Rock - Hale - Lord

Foll: Salmon - Burgoyne - Woods
Int: Bruce - Jacobs - Beaumont (Line in the sand match only)
That's the best I have. We have leaked some quality over the years, but when you get past the Clarko era, boy does the quality we have brought into the club thin out. A couple in there for some laughs and maybe on their output at their previous club.

 

[Mitchell54]

I think the OP meant from another AFL club which would rule out Smith

J Smith

 

[Gene Simmons]

Bloody hell we have recruited 'mature-age' well during the Clarko era

I guess it couldn't get worse than the 90's- early 2000's era... Paul Sharkey, Jonny Hassall, Kingsley Hunter...Danilchenko....Ridley..

 

[Crawforn]

Bloody hell we have recruited 'mature-age' well during the Clarko era

I guess it couldn't get worse than the 90's- early 2000's era... Paul Sharkey, Jonny Hassall, Kingsley Hunter...Danilchenko....Ridley..

Tony Woods also gave very good service to the club.

 

[Judd2Sewell]

Burgoyne for me. Not just for his impact on/off the field, but there simply aren't many better players to watch in full flight.

Ability, impact, leadership, professional, hardness, versitility and extremely aesthetically pleasing to watch play. He has it all.

He was also the fire-starter in the fateful Geelong game in 2013.

 

[parsons nose]

I think the OP meant from another AFL club which would rule out Smith, Poppy and Platten. Unless you mean Joel Smith. i also wouldn't have Croad due to the fact we initially drafted him, lent him to Freo for Hodgey and Mitch, and then got him back.

B: Gilham - Lake - Gibson
HB: Cheney - Frawley - Guerra
C: J Smith - Simpkin - Greene
HF: Gunston - Barker - Dew
F: Rock - Hale - Lord

Foll: Salmon - Burgoyne - Woods
Int: Bruce - Jacobs - Beaumont (Line in the sand match only)
That's the best I have. We have leaked some quality over the years, but when you get past the Clarko era, boy does the quality we have brought into the club thin out. A couple in there for some laughs and maybe on their output at their previous club.

Fair effort there. Who could forget Johnnie Barker and the goal in the final against Port Adeliade. I'd have Bremner for Cheney and Kappler for Beaumont. Funny how we've never been able to develop homegrown ruckman.
The last decent one being Don Scott

 

[Agent Smith]

I'm gonna side with Gibbo. Just because.

 

[Notsoyabby]

Hawthorn team of recruits(will need a lot of help):

B: Croad Lake Gibson
HB: Jacobs Frawley Guerra
C: Greene ? Dew
HF: Poupolo Gunston
F: Platten Salmon Hale
Foll: McEvoy Burgoyne
Int: Smith Rehn

I don't have much knowledge on the 20th century players so if people can fill the gaps or maybe move the players around.

? = Goss

Does Port Melbourne count????

 

[Notsoyabby]

? = Goss

Does Port Melbourne count????

Ian Bremner from Collingwood...played 71 and 76 grand finals ...sure he could have played centre.

 

[Davo23]

Burgoyne for me. Not just for his impact on/off the field, but there simply aren't many better players to watch in full flight.
Ability, impact, leadership, professional, hardness, versitility and extremely aesthetically pleasing to watch play. He has it all.
He was also the fire-starter in the fateful Geelong game in 2013.

I call Burgoyne the "Arsonist/Fireman": he can start the fire or put it out.

He's just been a magnificent player for us.