Australian Football

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Key Facts

Full name
Harold James Hawke

Known as
Harold Hawke

Nickname
Dribbler

Born
26 August 1909

Died
16 June 1995 (aged 85)

Senior clubs
North Adelaide

Harold Hawke


Club
League
Career span
Games
Goals
Avg
Win %
AKI
AHB
AMK
BV
North AdelaideSANFL1927-1928, 1930-1934, 1936-1937, 1939-1940701021.46
Total1927-1928, 1930-1934, 1936-1937, 1939-1940701021.46

Once described by Geelong great Reg Hickey as “the greatest centre half forward I have ever seen”¹, Harold ‘Dribbler’ Hawke would almost certainly have achieved a lot more in the game had he played league football more than just sporadically over the course of the fourteen years between his debut for North Adelaide in 1927 and his last game for the club in 1940. He played in eleven of those seasons, but often for only just a few [of the most important games] in each, hence the paltry tally of just 70 games in total. On the one occasion that he managed to make himself available for the entire year, 1937, he won both the Magarey Medal and the North Adelaide best and fairest award and was a member of the South Australian carnival team in Perth.

Adelaide-born Hawke made his debut for the red and whites in a semi final victory over West Torrens in 1927, but the following year he accepted a job on a farm at Curramulka on the Yorke Peninsula, where he eventually bought property and settled. Given the immense distances involved, it is small wonder that he preferred to devote most Saturday afternoons to playing locally for Curramulka, rather than travelling to Adelaide to play for a pittance in the SANFL². On the rare occasions that he did venture to the ‘Big Smoke’, however, it was clear that he was a unique and special talent. 

Tall and thin, he possessed wonderful ball handling skills combined with tremendous aerial ability. Moreover, he was extremely agile and quick, and could drop kick the ball prodigious distances. In both 1930 and ‘31 he was brought back to the city by North specifically to play in the finals, and his combination with legendary full forward Ken Farmer was a major contributory factor in the club’s going on to win premierships in those years.

A South Australian carnival representative in both 1933 and, as previously mentioned, 1937, Harold Hawke retired from the SANFL in 1940 but continued to play for Curramulka until he was 45 years of age.

In 2001, Harold Hawke was selected on a half forward flank in North Adelaide’s official ‘Team of the Twentieth Century’.

Author - John Devaney

Footnotes

1. Quoted in "Sporting Life", August 1950, page 25.

2. The return bus fare from Curramulka to Adelaide at this time was £1/14s, while North Adelaide paid Hawke the princely sum of £1/15s for each game played. Source: North Adelaide's Greatest by the North Adelaide Football Club History Committee, page 15.

Sources

Full Points Footy's SA Football Companion

Footnotes

* Behinds calculated from the 1965 season on.
+ Score at the end of extra time.