Tom Hawkins - Wednesday 1st April 2026

April 1, 2026·25 min·2 clips

Tom Hawkins recounts the frantic last quarter and his game-winning goal against Hawthorn in 2012.

The episode opens with an introduction covering Tom Hawkins' career statistics: 359 games, 796 goals, three premierships, a Norm Smith Medal, and five All-Australian selections. The host plays audio from the famous 2012 match-winning kick after the siren and Hawkins is invited to re-live the moment. He explains Geelong led by 50 at half-time but Hawthorn hit the front by 12 in the last quarter, creating total chaos. Hawkins describes being completely locked into the game and not nervous at the final mark, trusting his distance and accuracy over a teammate's advice to kick it to Jimmy Bartell on a tighter angle. The conversation turns to the 2008 grand final, which Hawkins watched as a non-playing squad member. He describes the change rooms as the quietest he had ever experienced. He adds the personal dimension of his close friend Xavier Ellis playing for Hawthorn that day and being unlucky not to win the Norm Smith Medal. On career challenges, Hawkins is candid about being dropped to the VFL in 2011 under Chris Scott after struggling to transition from junior to senior football, and admits he secretly started researching life after football during that period before being recalled via a Cam Mooney suspension and ultimately playing in a premiership. He also discusses his mother's passing in 2015 as another defining low point, and credits a small inner circle of trusted people including James Raleigh, Ken Hinckley, a doctor, and his football manager for helping him through both periods. On the Kennett Curse, Hawkins clarifies that coaches never explicitly invoked it but players gathered alone in the change rooms before Hawthorn games to remind themselves of the 2008 feeling and drive themselves not to repeat it. He reflects on the three premierships, calling 2022 the most meaningful because as a senior player he finally understood what the veterans of 2009 had felt passing that experience on. He names Joel Selwood, Mitch Duncan, Paddy Dangerfield, Mark Blicavs, and Cam Guthrie as the core group that kept pushing over a decade. He briefly discusses the AFL fixturing debate and tips Geelong to win Monday's game by four points.

As heard by us

A warm AFL conversation that balances premiership pedigree with honest talk about doubt and growth.

Tom Hawkins uses the Easter Monday clash with Hawthorn to open out into a wider story about patience, pressure, and staying in the system long enough to become a Geelong great.

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Why you'd press play

Press play for Tom Hawkins on the Easter Monday Hawthorn-Geelong grudge match at the MCG.

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