Tom Hawkins 350 games - What is his standing in the game?

[BubbleBass]

An absolute gun and not slowing down one bit

 

[Kappa]

If Hawkins played in the 80s in the era of 1 on 1 defending with no zones he'd be considered one of the greatest forwards of all time.

 

[PhatBoy]

I know he got gifted one by Jezza today anyway that made up for it regardless but I loved that he escorted one through from his mate Mitch that he had every right to just pick up and bang through. Not the only player that would do that but there’s also dozens that wouldn’t

 

[Worm4]

Can't believe he is not in Fadges top 50 ?

 

[Blues90]

If it wasn't for ablett I'd have him as their best ever key forward

 

[Mr Meow]

Aristotle Pickett still think he was selfish to hang on and will be a liability this season?

It's early days but Hawkins tends to grow into seasons rather than starting on fire, so 9 goals from the first 3 games and 6 score involvements per game is encouraging.

Riewoldt started well last year but still only had 5 goals from his first 3 games and 4.7 SIs per game.

 

[geelong_crazy26]

Passed jack riewoldt on the all time toal kicking list and now moves into outright 13th on the list behind richardson.

Also 11 contested marks off the all time contested marking record held by nick riewoldt.

 

[kreuze_missile]

Gets in the hall of fame for the flags and longevity. A bit of a right place right time career.

But if he’d played his entire career at St Kilda he would be more of a Kochitzke than a Riewoldt.

 

[mick500]

What is Hawkins standing in the game?

 

[Sttew]

Hate his haircut - have never been able to get past that and appreciate his game.

How do you rate Fritsch’s hair style?

 

[GastevsBeard]

Starting to wonder if he could play 400 games

 

[GastevsBeard]

This was back in 2013

Crazy that he's gone on not just to play for over a decade since, but put together career best football in his twilight years to surpass his contemparies in Riewoldt and Kennedy.

Old mate has form in this area

Made similarly theatrical, headline grabbing claims when we poached Lynch in 2019

Had been fairly healthy on field up until an unrelated freak foot injury last year

 

[Mr Meow]

Gets in the hall of fame for the flags and longevity. A bit of a right place right time career.

But if he’d played his entire career at St Kilda he would be more of a Kochitzke than a Riewoldt.

Yeah he really lucked out by being a kid during the dominant '07-'11 era (peak Hawkins in that side would've been kicking 80+ goals a season) and then having a horrific back injury in 2013 that should have finished his career, while having to carry pretty bad forward lines for about 8 years until Cameron arrived.

A lucky, lucky boy.

He was in the right time, right place for his important cameos in 3 winning grand finals though.

 

[Fadge]

Yeah he really lucked out by being a kid during the dominant '07-'11 era (peak Hawkins in that side would've been kicking 80+ goals a season) and then having a horrific back injury in 2013 that should have finished his career, while having to carry pretty bad forward lines for about 8 years until Cameron arrived.

A lucky, lucky boy.

He was in the right time, right place for his important cameos in 3 winning grand finals though.

Without Hawkins, the Pies win in 2011.

 

[GWT6]

How do you rate Fritsch’s hair style?

Can't look at him without having flashbacks to one of the worst and most overrated movies of all time - David Lynch's Eraserhead.

If I was running the show at Melbourne, I'd go full Monty Burns and he wouldn't get a game until he shaved it off.

​

 

[PhatBoy]

Gets in the hall of fame for the flags and longevity. A bit of a right place right time career.

But if he’d played his entire career at St Kilda he would be more of a Kochitzke than a Riewoldt.

Lollll.


Yeah.

 

[PhatBoy]

Can't look at him without having flashbacks to one of the worst and most overrated movies of all time - David Lynch's Eraserhead.

If I was running the show at Melbourne, I'd go full Monty Burns and he wouldn't get a game until he shaved it off.

​

This. I actually said to one of my mates at the pub the other night that I can’t believe Goodwin and Gawn let him run on the field like that.

 

[juss]

Passed jack riewoldt on the all time toal kicking list and now moves into outright 13th on the list behind richardson.

Also 11 contested marks off the all time contested marking record held by nick riewoldt.

Riewoldt and Hawkins have similar career stats in a lot of ways, games, goals, AAs, Coleman's, Premierships, they're not exactly correlated but they're pretty close.

Where did you find the all time contested marking data? I'd imagine that stat wouldn't have been tracked too well until more recently as I'd think guys like Carey, Richardson, Alistair Lynch, Tony Lockett and probably many others that began in the 90s would be high up on that list.

Hawkins longevity has been superb, be interesting to see how many he has left. Looks certain to play on next year you'd think, but anyone his age it's always a year by year prospect as once time turns against you it generally turns pretty quickly.

 

[Sttew]

Can't look at him without having flashbacks to one of the worst and most overrated movies of all time - David Lynch's Eraserhead.

If I was running the show at Melbourne, I'd go full Monty Burns and he wouldn't get a game until he shaved it off.

​

He looks like he's stuck his finger in a power point!

 

[PhatBoy]

Riewoldt and Hawkins have similar career stats in a lot of ways, games, goals, AAs, Coleman's, Premierships, they're not exactly correlated but they're pretty close.

Where did you find the all time contested marking data? I'd imagine that stat wouldn't have been tracked too well until more recently as I'd think guys like Carey, Richardson, Alistair Lynch, Tony Lockett and probably many others that began in the 90s would be high up on that list.

Hawkins longevity has been superb, be interesting to see how many he has left. Looks certain to play on next year you'd think, but anyone his age it's always a year by year prospect as once time turns against you it generally turns pretty quickly.

If Hawkins were to kick, I think, 9(?) goals in the next two games against the Dogs and Roos combined, his average will match almost to the second decimal point, Jack’s across their careers.

 

[juss]

If Hawkins were to kick, I think, 9(?) goals in the next two games against the Dogs and Roos combined, his average will match almost to the second decimal point, Jack’s across their careers.

Yeh that's insane across that long of a time period to be so close. Even as it is now, it's ridiculously similar.

 

[Strange Cat]

Starting to wonder if he could play 400 games

Would love to see it but I suspect if this year isn’t the end for him it’ll be next year at the very least

 

[PhatBoy]

He looks like he's stuck his finger in a power point!

I won’t name and shame the guy but Fritsch looks identical to this w***er I follow on social media out of obligation to the w***er’s dad. I’m mates with the dad, the w***er is a fellow muso who is about 15 years younger than me.

Essentially my music is me, a guitar, my fat and incredibly ugly Dave Grohl appearance and if I post any videos to social media before a gig to try and encourage people to come, I have an almost unshakable nervous reluctance to look at the camera and engage beyond ‘hey, get to such and such and hear me butcher Ziggy Stardust like this.’

This Bailey Fritsch lookalike sets up shop in his bedroom with what look like scented candles and appears like he’s singing a love song to the phone even if it’s his own version of the Baywatch theme song in his best Ed Sheeran voice.

As a consequence it’s kind of how I imagine Bailey Fritsch spends 100 per cent of his spare time.

 

[geelong_crazy26]

Riewoldt and Hawkins have similar career stats in a lot of ways, games, goals, AAs, Coleman's, Premierships, they're not exactly correlated but they're pretty close.

Where did you find the all time contested marking data? I'd imagine that stat wouldn't have been tracked too well until more recently as I'd think guys like Carey, Richardson, Alistair Lynch, Tony Lockett and probably many others that began in the 90s would be high up on that list.

Hawkins longevity has been superb, be interesting to see how many he has left. Looks certain to play on next year you'd think, but anyone his age it's always a year by year prospect as once time turns against you it generally turns pretty quickly.

Not too sure how far back the collection of data goes but if you just google all time contested marking AFL players it will come up on afl tables.

 

[My Tilly]

If it wasn't for ablett I'd have him as their best ever key forward

Never saw Wade play but many still have him second all time. Averaged 4 goals a final and booted over 830 goals for the Cats.

I think Hawkins is similar in many ways to Ablett in that they never quite had the help around them during the best years of their career. Brownless arrived on the scene in the late 80's and didn't get going until early 90's. Likewise Stoneham. There were always guys like Exell, Lindner, Jackson, Bright.

Hawkins between 2012-2017 really only had Podsiadly, Clark, Ratugolea etc. At times, it was a makeshift forward line having Taylor or Henderson as the second key forward.
With a legitimate superstar in Cameron by his side, the burden has been lifted and he is reaping the rewards at the back end of his career.