AFL 2022: Geelong superstar Tom Hawkins reveals playing with foot pain during back half of season

A Geelong superstar is facing surgery and an extended break during the off-season after revealing his two-month battle with a secret foot injury to help guide the Cats to a flag.

Champion Geelong forward Tom Hawkins is facing an extended off-season break to repair a troublesome foot injury.

The veteran goal kicker carried a secret foot injury in the last two months of the season but battled on bravely to help guide the Cats to the 2022 premiership.

The Cats are weighing up the recovery options, including potential minor surgery.

Geelong is confident Hawkins, 34, will recover in time to be fully prepared for next season.

But they will be cautious with the man who has performed brilliantly in recent seasons and won four-straight All-Australian guernseys.

Tom Hawkins, pictured with Patrick Dangerfield, has revealed the excruciating pain he was forced to play with during the latter half of the season.

Cats’ football manager Simon Lloyd paid credit to Hawkins and the club’s medical staff for managing the injury late in the year.

He said the club was waiting for more information from specialists before it made a decision on the next step.

“He did experience some soreness in his foot in the later part of the season but was able to play with it which is testament to him and the medical staff,” Lloyd said.

“We will get all the information before we decide on the best course of recovery but anticipate he will be right for the start of next season.”

The three-time premiership forward was outstanding in the Grand Final win over Sydney Swans kicking three goals.

As Cats get even stronger, is the trade system broken?

– Glenn McFarlane

Geelong may never again have to “bottom out” as it has AFL football’s “greatest home ground advantage” in terms of acquiring talent, according to former long-time recruiter Matt Rendell.

The AFL’s equalisation policy has come under fire during this trade period with the Cats’ pursuit of Ollie Henry, Tanner Bruhn, Jack Bowes and Gold Coast’s pick 7 likely to make the already star-studded premiership line-up even stronger in 2023.

The deal with the Giants for Bruhn will be for pick 18, with the Cats now getting to work on securing Henry and Bowes, who both want to move to Geelong next season.

“I can’t (ever) see them bottoming out. They can keep rolling along,” Rendell told the Herald Sun. “It’s the best home ground advantage in the competition.”

Tanner Bruhn will soon be a Cat. Picture: Jason McCawley/AFL Photos/Getty Images

Tanner Bruhn with a blank face after being drafted to the Giants in the 2020 draft. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Rendell told the Herald Sun the advantages of successful culture, great facilities and a tempting work-life on the surf coast are “massive” winners for Geelong.

But he stressed rival clubs often have themselves to blame for allowing the Cats to lead the way in their aggressive approach.

“The only reason they will end up with (pick) seven and Bowes is because of a massive blue from the Gold Coast Suns,” he said.

“They could have four retirees at the end of next season and that’s why they are bringing in Henry, Bruhn, Bowes and whoever is pick 7.

“All the stuff they are doing now is to make sure they have 22 and 23-year-olds coming through for the future.”

One industry source said the AFL’s original intention was that its free agency and its player movement rules would assist struggling clubs, but it had now been tipped heavily in the favour of power clubs such as Geelong and Richmond.

The Cats have used free agency and the trade period as well as any other club this century.

“The original free agency intention was that free agents would get paid enough to go to the bottom clubs, but it has done the complete opposite,” a well-placed footy source said.

“Players are going (to clubs) for success and are happy to accept less.

“To bottom out and rebuild through the draft has never been harder. This has made a rebuild really, really hard.

Teammates at the Geelong Falcons, Ollie Henry and Tanner Bruhn are set to join each other at the Cats. Picture: Alex Coppel.

“At the end of the day they (Geelong) have had smart people who have cashed in on what is the greatest advantage in footy.

“They’ve got a state-of-the-art stadium down near the beach, the city’s an hour away and the surf beaches are only a short drive away.

“All the other states have got competitors in their own markets. People are so much happier living down the beach than they were 20 years ago, because the infrastructure is so much better now.”

Dual premiership Cat Cameron Mooney said it had historically been a tough sell trying to convince players to head down the highway a generation ago.

But Mooney says that has changed forever, as the club and the town have prospered immeasurably since the Cats’ drought-breaking flag success in 2007, with a culture and lifestyle more suited to young footballers than in the past.

Mooney said even he chose to live in Melbourne throughout much of his time with the Cats, although he has been living back down there for more than a decade now.

Cam Mooney said Geelong had been a tough sell previously.

“The players realise Geelong has been a great club for almost 20 years now, so why not go to a great club and move to a beautiful town,” Mooney said.

You realise you can leave the footy club and you are at most 10 to 20 minutes away from home, or you can buy a bit of property like Jezza (Jeremy Cameron), Rhys (Stanley) or Tommy (Hawkins), without having to deal with the worst of the city traffic.

“You have the best of both worlds. And you are guaranteed to play finals every year!”

“On the back of the club’s success (following the 2007 premiership), I think it generated a lot of money and that was put back into the town. They started getting more cafes and restaurants, and they did the waterfront up.

“You are so close to the Bellarine Peninsula and from a price point of view compared to the Mornington Peninsula, it is just as beautiful with half the price tag.