Tom Hawkins Biography
Tom Hawkins is an Australian rules footballer playing for the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). At 198 cm (6 ft 6 in) tall and weighing 110 kilograms (240 lb), Hawkins has the ability to play as either a full-forward or centre half-forward.
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He grew up in New South Wales before moving to Victoria to attend Melbourne Grammar School, where his football abilities earned him a spot in the first XVIII in year ten. He played top-level football with the Sandringham Dragons in the TAC Cup and Vic Metro in the AFL Under-18 Championships.
Hawkins’s accolades as a junior include national and state representation, the Larke Medal as the AFL Under-18 Championships’ most valuable player, and All-Australian selection. As the eldest son of former Geelong champion Jack Hawkins, Hawkins was drafted by Geelong under the father-son draft rule with the forty-first selection in the 2006 national draft.
He made his AFL debut in 2007, which saw former Carlton coach, Denis Pagan compare him to the highest goal scorer in the history of the league and former full-forward, Tony Lockett, after his debut game.
His debut season saw him earn an AFL Rising Star nomination and he was part of Geelong’s Victorian Football League (VFL) premiership side.
He has since become a two-time AFL premiership player, a Coleman Medalist, an All-Australian full forward, a Carji Greeves Medallist as the club best and fairest player, a ten-time leading goalkicker for Geelong, and a recipient of the former AFL Army Award—awarded to a player who produces significant acts of bravery or selflessness during a season.
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Tom Hawkins Career
Tom Hawkins was officially selected by Geelong in the 2006 national draft under the father-son rule.
While many pundits lauded him as the best key position prospect within the draft, and felt Hawkins’ junior performances warranted possible selection with the top overall pick, the father-son rules at the time only required Geelong to use a middle-tier third-round pick to draft him.
The subsequent controversy over what was widely acknowledged as a bargain gain for the Cats led to the AFL amending the father-son ruling for future use.
Hawkins gained the reputation as one of the finest young tall forwards in the land, Hawkins was immediately billed as the successor to the legendary Gary Ablett, whose retirement ten years earlier had left a gaping hole in Geelong’s forward line.
A stress reaction injury to his right leg, however, halted Hawkins’ pre-season, forcing his much-awaited debut in Geelong colours to take place in the Victorian Football League (VFL) side.
He made his highly anticipated debut for the Geelong seniors in round two of the 2007 season against Carlton.
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Opposed to Carlton captain Lance Whitnall, Hawkins impressed with three goals and several strong marks in Geelong’s seventy-eight-point victory, prompting then-Carlton coach, Denis Pagan to label him the next Tony Lockett. Other revered media figures, such as Gerard Healy and David Parkin, were moved enough to describe the debut as the best first-up performance in recent memory.
Uncommonly for AFL debutants, he followed up with an even more impressive performance in his second game, kicking four first-half goals to help set up a victory against Melbourne at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), earning the AFL Rising Star nomination for round three in the process.
Question marks, however, were raised over his fitness and ability to run out entire games, and after nine games in his debut season, which saw him kick twelve goals, Hawkins saw out the rest of the year with the clubs’ VFL side.
There, Hawkins helped Geelong reach the VFL Grand Final for the second successive year, booting three goals as the Cats defeated the Coburg Tigers to claim their first VFL premiership since 2002
Despite inconsistencies in Tom Hawkin’s form, he played twenty-four matches for the 2009 season including the grand final, where he played alongside other father-son selections, Gary Ablett, Matthew Scarlett and Mark Blake.
He scored two goals in the game to help Geelong defeat St Kilda by twelve points, winning the 2009 AFL premiership. One of his goals was notably controversial, as it was later ruled it had hit the goal post, which should have been registered as a behind; this was one of the reasons behind the introduction of the goal review system implemented by the AFL during the 2012 season.
A mid-year footy injury saw Hawkins miss seven weeks of football in 2010, and he finished the season with eighteen matches and twenty-one goals. He did, however, play in Geelong’s final series; a narrow loss to St Kilda in the qualifying final hampered Geelong’s chances of retaining the premiership and a forty-one point loss to eventual premiers, Collingwood, in the preliminary final ended Geelong and Hawkins’ season.
Tom Hawkins faced scrutiny during the 2011 season for his inconsistent form which saw him dropped from the senior side in the middle of the season. He was highly praised during Geelong’s finals series in which Herald Sun journalist, Scott Gullan labelled the qualifying win against Hawthorn the best match of Hawkins’ career at the time.
Tom Hawkins bettered that performance two weeks later in the 2011 AFL Grand Final, where he finished the day with nineteen disposals, nine marks and three goals to win his second premiership medallion.
An injury to fellow forward, James Podsiadly in the second quarter meant Tom Hawkins was the main target in the forward line where he kicked three goals in the third quarter and he was labelled as the unlikely hero by Fox Sports Australia journalist, Mike Hedge.
Tom Hawkins performance saw him awarded five votes for the Norm Smith Medal, coming third behind Jimmy Bartel with thirteen votes and Joel Selwood with nine votes. It was later revealed in the book, Greatness, Inside Geelong’s Path to Premiership History, he was nearly dropped for the final series for retiring forward, Cameron Mooney.
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Tom Hawkins net worth
Tom Hawkins net worth has been estimated to be approximately $5 million. His primary source of income is from his working professional career as a rules football player. Tom Hawkins’s salary per month with other career earnings is over $450,000 dollars annually.
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