James Worpel becomes Hawthorn’s youngest best-and-fairest since Leigh Matthews in 1971
James Worpel became the youngest player since Leigh Matthews to win Hawthorn’s best-and-fairest on Saturday night as coach Alastair Clarkson revealed the mental battles he has endured since the club’s premiership three-peat.
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Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson has admitted he “lost all sense of perspective” in the wake of the club’s premiership three-peat, including a stint this season that left him “lower than shark s---”.
At Saturday night’s club best and fairest award — which was won by young gun James Worpel following his breakout second season — Clarkson recalled his childhood growing up in small town Kaniva, near the Victorian border with South Australia.
And he admitted he had recently needed reminding of why he had fallen in love with the game after using perspective as a tool to launch into the team’s 2013 campaign and eventual three-straight premierships.
“We made it human. We gave ourselves a chance for the next three years to win it. And we did,” Clarkson said.
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“And then peanut here (me) loses all sense of perspective and thinks ‘OK, this game is all just about winning every year, because that’s what we’ve done for the last three, let’s just do it again’.
“The challenge for us in a sense is to say ‘we want to win but we’re not here to produce just winners. We’re here to produce good people’.”
He said he had been locked in a win-loss bubble into this season, and said the team’s six-point loss to West Coast in Round 15 had proven to be a significant blow.
“I was as low as shark s--- after that loss. No matter what ‘Reevesy’ (club CEO Justin Reeves) or Jeff (Kennett) did to try and give me some sense of perspective … I was nearly inconsolable … in a pretty bad spot.”
Clarkson said as the season was “on the brink”, it was the ability to celebrate milestone matches in the subsequent weeks and then the farewell game for former skipper Jarryd Roughead — who twice battled melanoma during his 283-game career — had helped him to rediscover what really mattered.
Roughead — described by Hawks skipper Ben Stratton as a “father figure” — was farewelled in style in a lengthy tribute at Crown Palladium.
“I’d like to think that I was a great teammate that loved spending time with the boys. For 15 years that’s all I’ve known,” he said.
“I came out of Leongatha as a young boy. I leave as a grown up, dad, husband … I’m grateful that Hawthorn was able to mould me in to the person that I am.”
The “Worpedo” passed best first year player honours — which he claimed just 12 months ago — to young forward Oliver Hanrahan while ruck Jonathon Ceglar was named best clubman.
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Jarman Impey was recognised as the Hawks’ most consistent player despite a season-ending injury in Round 18 and Mitchell Lewis was named the most promising player.
“(The 2019) Peter Crimmins medal highlights the exceptional level of young talent rising through the ranks at Hawthorn,” club chief executive Justin Reeves said.
With five of our top six vote-getters aged 25 or under, the future for our club looks bright and it is clear the next generation of Hawthorn players are emerging and steering us towards our next piece of silverware.”
Peter Crimmins Medal Top 10
James Worpel 115
Ricky Henderson 104
Jaeger O’Meara 103
James Sicily 100
Blake Hardwick 90
Jarman Impey 85
Liam Shiels 78
Ben McEvoy 75
Luke Breust 73
Ben Stratton 63
Originally published as James Worpel becomes Hawthorn’s youngest best-and-fairest since Leigh Matthews in 1971