Tom Hawkins’ failure to heed punching crackdown will end up hurting Geelong, writes Glenn McFarlane
TOM Hawkins clearly didn’t listen to the advice of ex-teammate Jimmy Bartel and he now finds himself in trouble for another silly and unnecessary punch, writes GLENN McFARLANE.
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WHAT part of the AFL’s crackdown on body punches does Tom Hawkins not understand?
Clearly, the Geelong forward has failed to read the AFL’s change in play in recent months or listened to the advice of former teammate Jimmy Bartel.
Hawkins is once again under the threat of suspension following two silly, completely unnecessary acts against the Swans on Friday night — one a punch to Callum Mills’ chest and the other a jumper punch to Dane Rampe’s throat.
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While the force of both might still be enough for him to escape serious penalty, the fact he did it makes no sense at all, given what the MRP has dished out in the past two weeks and his own jumper punch history.
Despite Friday’s big loss to the Swans, the Cats are deep in premiership contention, yet Hawkins continues to put himself at risk of hurting his team’s campaign with a lack of discipline which is staggering for such a senior and important player.
Don’t forget it was only in Round 11 this year when Hawkins was the first to suffer from the MRP’s hardline approach to such incidents when banned for a week for a clash with Adelaide’s Matt Crouch.
And he copped a week for a punch on GWS co-captain Phil Davis last year.
His bad record won’t help in any future MRP trouble.
His most recent ban prompted Bartel, who is also on the MRP panel, to offer some much needed advice to Hawkins — ditch the punch or run the gauntlet of more time on the sidelines.
“He needs to just get it out of his game,” Bartel said on RSN.
Hawkins clearly hasn’t heeded the advice.
He and Mitch Duncan — and the Cats — will be sweating on the release of the MRP decisions on Monday, with Carlton premiership great Mark Maclure saying the AFL should maintain its tougher stand by giving them bans.
“I think they should suspend them because if you’re going to finish it off (punching), finish it off, because it just keeps coming and coming,” Maclure said on Fox Footy.
“If you don’t want to stop it, give them a $1500 fine.”
Hawkins’ return to form in recent weeks has been great for Cats’ fans to watch, but he can’t keep treading the fine line he is walking.
If he does, it will hurt the team when it can least afford it.
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