Geelong nice Tom Hawkins will take an undesirable private milestone into subsequent Friday night time’s record-equalling AFL conflict with Port Adelaide.
Hawkins will be a part of former teammate Joel Selwood on 355 video games, the membership file. He is equal nineteenth on the all-time AFL listing alongside Lance Franklin and Travis Boak.
But Hawkins has additionally gone four-straight video games with out kicking a purpose for the primary time in his profession.
He solely managed 0.1 on Saturday night time in opposition to Melbourne as Geelong misplaced for the primary time this season and likewise conceded high spot on the ladder to Sydney.
Geelong coach Chris Scott defended Hawkins and fellow key ahead Jeremy Cameron, who was restricted to 0.3 and missed two set pictures within the final time period as they went down by solely eight factors.
“He’ll come out at some point. But at the risk of sounding defensive, I’m not sure how many goals Hawk has kicked in his career … what I’m certain of is he’s given away a lot more than other key forward in the history of the game,” Scott mentioned of Hawkins.
“To measure his influence on our team by goals alone, it’s a sexy stat. We maybe have been too conscious of Hawk and he might be a victim of what he’s done in the past.”
Scott added there’s nothing unsuitable with Hawkins bodily. “He may be a little bit off, but it’s not a physical thing,” the Cats coach mentioned.
Asked about Cameron, Scott mentioned: “If we had another shot and we could give it to anyone, I’d give it to Jeremy. It’s one of those things. Hawk had his chances as well.”
Scott was philosophical in regards to the loss, noting key gamers corresponding to Cameron and Hawkins didn’t have good video games.
“The bottom line is we had our chances to win the game with a lot of guys off – I don’t know there would be many of our guys thinking they had really good days,” he mentioned.
“But we were pleased with how they hung in there. The exciting part is that every team is going to have nights like that, but the good ones are the ones who will hang in there and give themselves a chance.
“We had some gamers who did not fairly end off, however that is a rarity. You would not have thought that is typical of the best way we play.”
Taylor Bruhn was subbed off mid-game with a shoulder damage and Scott is hopeful it isn’t critical.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
