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Opinion: Ashley Browne
What I’m thinking
with Ashley Browne
Lost love haunts the Hawks
After honouring one former star, Hawthorn must heal a rift with another club great.
Last week started out so well for Hawthorn.
The club and its supporters basked in the glory of a 64-point thrashing of Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval.
Granted, the Power were hobbled and ripe to be beaten, but Sam Mitchell coached superbly, and he enjoyed great contributions from both his experienced players and second-gamers such as Connor Macdonald and Josh Ward.
Perhaps the cupboard at Bunjil Bagora, the old Waverley Park, is not as threadbare as some would have you believe.
Midweek, many of the club’s former greats gathered at the MCG for the launch of leading football writer and historian Dan Eddy’s latest book, A Football Genius. The Peter Hudson Story.
It was a book launch replete with plenty of anecdotes and lots of laughs. Much was made of Hudson’s mastery of the flat punt, his, ahem, ample posterior and his kicking style, likened to “making love to a tennis ball”.
It came just days after former Hawk Lance Franklin became just the sixth player in League history to kick 1000 goals and amid plenty of chat about whether we will ever see a player kick 100 goals in a season, as did Franklin in 2008, the last to do so, let alone 1000 over an entire career.
Hudson said he still watches a lot of football and holds out hope the next golden era is around the corner.
“I’d give anything to see somebody (else) come along and kick 1000 goals in my lifetime. I don’t believe for one minute that nobody could ever do it again,” he said.
That it somehow took more than 40 years after Hudson’s last game in his native Tasmania for his biography to be written was mentioned more than once.
As was the maths. If he had played as many games at the highest level as Franklin (321 compared with 129), he would have already passed the 1800-goal mark and would have a few more still to come.
Hudson’s legacy matters to Hawthorn and the club is honouring that in 2022 by designing its clash strip jumper with its unique pinstripe and white vintage number panel.
We could mention that Hudson never actually played for Hawthorn in a gold jumper with a brown ‘V’ but AFL rules are AFL rules when it comes to alternate strips, so this is the best outcome for all.
But there is another part of the Hawthorn legacy that now needs some work – the relationship between the club and the mercurial four-time premiership star Cyril Rioli is beyond repair.
It had long been rumoured it was an off-the-cuff remark from Hawks president Jeff Kennett to Rioli’s
HAWK RIFT: Four-time premiership star Cyril Rioli’s relationship with his former club has been described as “beyond repair”.
A Football Genius. The Peter Hudson Story by Dan Eddy. Published by Hardie Grant Books. RRP $34.99. partner Shannyn that was the catalyst from his abrupt retirement in 2018.
But as Caroline Wilson’s excellent report in The Age last weekend revealed, there had been a series of events over a few years which had been troubling the Riolis and that was the final straw.
Kennett’s first term as Hawthorn president between 2006 and 2011 was distinguished; his return from late 2017 a bit less so.
The election of Ian Silk to the board last December, engineered largely by the powerful Hawks For Change movement, was proof that supporters were angling for a new off-field direction for the club.
The Hawks reiterated in a statement released last Friday – only hours before the Rioli story broke – that Kennett’s successor will be identified by June 30.
But that won’t wash with many supporters who adore Rioli and are dismayed at his estrangement from the club.
They would like to see that timeline brought forward.
A trip to Hawthorn’s museum at Waverley would suggest that the Hawks are the competition leaders when it comes to honouring their past. There is no shortage of great stories to be told, with Hudson’s just the latest.
But it would be a blight on the club if the rift with Rioli is not mended soon. To borrow a phrase from another club that has endured similar issues, the Hawks need to ‘do better’.
