The day Tom Hawkins was sure Geelong was about to trade him

Now inarguably one of Geelong’s greatest ever players, Hawkins was sure he was about to be traded after a brutal dressing down in a post-season meeting in 2017.

His next call was to his manager Tom Petroro, fearful his days were numbered at the club he loved.

Having just won the club’s goalkicking award for the sixth-straight season and shrugged off a debilitating back problem, Hawkins didn’t expect the interrogation he copped when he sat down opposite football department figures in coach Chris Scott, now CEO Steve Hocking and recruiting doyen Stephen Wells.

Hawkins was in the midst of a bumper five-year contract and was told his salary was among the top handful of players in the league – a claim he disputed.

The Cats’ brass told Hawkins he wasn’t playing up to that level.

He kicked 51 goals that season and the Cats finished second on the ladder but were pumped in an away preliminary final by Adelaide.

Of course, Petroro talked down the chance of the trade ever happening and Hawkins was never seriously dangled to rivals.

But the meeting is a stark revelation in Hawkins’ new self-titled memoir.

“Post Mum passing away I just felt like I was in a bit of a rut in my career,” he told this masthead.

“I was a couple of years into a five-year contract and it was a meeting to show, upon reflection, how committed they were and just to make sure I had the same commitment.

“It was a great learning experience, although I didn’t like it at the time. I thought I was going to get traded. I was straight on the phone to my manager and Emma saying ‘pack your bags’.

“I have had some pretty pointed meetings from different coaches at the end of every year. Some have been good, some haven’t, and that was one.”

Not long after that grilling, Hawkins made a rare leap in what should have been his post-prime from very good goalkicker to all-time club great.

He bagged 60 goals in 2018 and launched into a new stratosphere in his 30s.

He was named All-Australian four times in a row, starting in 2019, won the Coleman Medal in 2020 and his dominance up forward helped Geelong win the 2022 premiership, his third.

In his first 11 seasons before that meeting, Hawkins played 211 games and kicked 438 goals at an average of 2.08 per game.

In the 148 games since he has booted 358 goals at a rate of 2.42 per match.

But the spearhead didn’t put his jump down to the 2017 grilling.

“Whether it propelled me, I don’t think so,” he said.

“We had follow up discussions after that and it was good to talk honestly about what I needed to do.

“I wouldn’t take it back and I often joke with my manager and with Steve Hocking and Stephen Wells every now and then about that review. At the time it was brutal and I hadn’t really had anything like that and they really challenged me.”

Hawkins will retire at the end of this season as Geelong’s games record holder and his 796 goals is the third-most at the club behind Gary Ablett Sr (1021) and Doug Wade (834).

So what launched him from star to legend?

“I have always been a person who takes things on and works through them and tries to find the right way to do things,” Hawkins said.

“I put a fair bit of pressure on myself and I had external pressure in the footy world, but I probably never really balanced the two of them.

“I think just exposure and time in the game, it all just culminated into the last five years. It was never one point in time and I don’t look back at any stage of my career and think it was just a meeting or just being dropped to the VFL and coming back in 2011. It is always a combination of things.”

By any measure Hawkins is a champion and will enter the Australian Football Hall of Fame early next decade.

Even with his career inching towards the end and having gone through a deep look back for his book, the spearhead stopped short of putting any of those great labels on himself.

“You need lots of little things to be in the game for as long as I have and I am proud of that,” he said.

“I have tried to steer away while I was playing from referring to myself as a champion. I think ultimately, when everything is kind of complete, that is up for people to judge externally from myself. I will never put a ‘champion’ label or a ‘legend’ label on myself. That is not necessarily something that I feel comfortable saying.”

On the surface, Hawkins’ journey from gun athlete to father-son Cat to club legend seems an obvious path.

The son of 182-game Cat Jack Hawkins, Tom may have gone No.1 in the 2006 AFL national draft if he didn’t walk straight to Kardinia Park, just as the club was finally ready to shake off the burden of disappointment that had lingered for four decades.

He will finish up with at least three premierships and happily sit in the stands at GMHBA Stadium and watch his beloved club in the years to come – having joked this week that his big frame may require two seats.

But there were several turning points along the way.

He may not have made it at all if his parents didn’t encourage him to play in the national under-18 carnival in 2006 and at one point in 2011 he was gaining work experience in a real estate agency while playing in the VFL, thinking his footy journey could be winding down.

Then there was the back problem in 2013 that led to Cats fans unfairly giving him Bronx cheers.

But without doubt the most earth shattering moment came in 2015 when his mother, Jennie, died of oesophageal cancer.

Touchingly, Hawkins drags his kids outside when he can to point out the brightest star in the sky and tell them that is their grandmother looking down – an idea he borrowed from ex-teammate Steve Johnson and his wife Erin.

Jennie’s memory is brightest around birthdays, when Hawkins’ kids dig into cake and talk about how good Jennie was at baking.

“Mum is always a talking point in our house,” he said.

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“We have grieved through that moment and that period took a little bit of time.

“I don’t like to say I would have done things too differently throughout my career, every experience is something to be learned form and that grieving period is something where I didn’t realise how long it was going to take.

“I certainly miss my mum day-to-day and now being a father it is really important to reflect and our kids, and particularly Emma, we do a wonderful job of trying to mention mum as much as possible and try to give the kids visual cues of what she looks like.”

Originally published as The day Tom Hawkins was sure Geelong was about to trade him