Australian Football

Paul Dear experienced mixed fortunes over the course of a Hawthorn career which saw him sometimes fall out of favour with the selectors. He debuted with the Hawks in 1987 and played at full forward in that season's grand final loss to Carlton but then did not play another senior game until 1989 meaning that he missed the opportunity to play in a premiership team in 1988. He also missed Hawthorn's 1989 grand final win over Geelong. 

At his best, which he manifested to telling effect in the Hawks' 1991 grand final defeat of West Coast, Dear was relentlessly hard running and powerful and earned the Norm Smith Medal as best afield. He carried on with Hawthorn until 1996 by which time he had played 123 games and kicked 80 goals. Most commonly deployed across half forward he could also do a serviceable job on the ball and it might be fair to suggest that had he played for virtually any other club he would have enjoyed a somewhat higher reputation and played more senior grade football.

Author - John Devaney