The Hawthorn Hawks have just announced their 2010 list changes and there has been a major clean out at the bottom part of the list:
Senior-listed players:
Campbell Brown (Gold Coast), Trent Croad (retired), Beau Dowler (delisted), Rhan Hooper (delisted), Beau Muston (delisted), Simon Taylor (delisted), Travis Tuck (delisted)
Rookie-listed players:
Michael Johnston, NSW Scholarship (delisted), Jarrod Kayler-Thomson (delisted), Garry Moss (delisted), Carl Peterson (delisted), Wayde Skipper (delisted), Cameron Stokes (delisted)
Some of these changes were already know. For example Trent Croad via retirement, Campbell Brown to the Gold Coast and Rhan Hooper who was announced as leaving the club during trade week. The surprises among this list to many would be the following in my mind:
- Simon Taylor – In some ways an unlucky man at the Hawks. Formed a good ruck combination in 2007 and up until just before the finals in 2008 with Robert Campbell before being replaced by Brent Renouf. In 2009 he had a bad year on the park giving away to many free kicks and getting suspended. In the 2010 preseason, Alastair Clarkson reported that he took some of the blame for those frees after asking Taylor to play more physical. Then in one of the last practice matches before the season he broke his leg and played only one game late in the season
- Dowler and Muston – Two highly favored draft picks that came to the Hawks with injuries and never really lived up to their promise. Muston had terrible knee issues needing around 3 surgeries. He played some footy for the Hawks but never showed the promise that had some thinking he would go top 5 in the draft before the knee injuries. Dowler had a car crash just before the draft causing hip damage and many observes felt he never had the confidence in his body after that point. Showed glimpses of talent but too injury prone.
- Carl Peterson – Is in some ways a shocker but reports are that he has personal issues that he needs to get right
- Wade Skipper – If you had told me that Taylor would be delisted, would would have almost put money on Wade being upgraded on to the main list. I guess with the new interchange rule and the Hawks picking up David Hale, they fell that Skipper isn’t a good insurance policy. Being a Hawk fan, I have a small hope that perhaps this move is to free a spot up in the Mature rookie category for a return of Robbie Campbell even though the Hawks have said they still feel his knee isn’t up to the riggours of AFL Football, perhaps that is just a tactic to ward off other teams from taking him. More likely is the Hawks to add another younger Ruck prospect that has the ability to play either Forward or back.
The last player to mention is Travis Tuck. The club has made it know that they will keep him on to train with the club and leave a spot open on the rookie list till March, under the new AFL Rules. If he doesn’t make the list then, they will offer to make him inactive and let him play for Box Hill with the thought of picking him back up in 2011 if all goes well. Hawks footy manager Mark Evens said:
“Travis will continue to train with the group until March 2011, which will give him the opportunity to be considered for the final spot on Hawthorn’s Rookie List and the Club will continue to support Travis financially at this time,” Evans said.
Hawks have cleaned out a lot from their rookie list, but have some interesting NSW Rookies that they could possibly list. One of which is Will Langford, son of form great Hawk Full Back, Chris Langford.
UPDATE
Hawks announced today that they have added Will Langford and Jack Mahony. They had this to say about the kids:
Will, the son of Hawthorn great Chris Langford, currently plays with Easts FC in Sydney. Displaying excellent athleticism, Will plays across half back or in the midfield and has an outstanding training ethic.
Will represented NSW in the AFL Under 18 competition in 2009, but missed in 2010 due to injury and illness.
Taking the second Rookie spot alongside Will, Jack Mahony hails from Kiama, near Woollongong, and has been a most committed member of the Hawks’ scholarship program in NSW.
Jack has elite fitness and an impressive work rate, with the ability to play as a small defender or through the midfield.
Jack is the product of the fast developing football framework in the Illawarra region of NSW, managed by Dave Johnson on behalf of AFLNSW.
