Isaac Smith completes a 'dirty dozen'
Given that Geelong and Hawthorn have been trading blows on V/AFL fields for 96 seasons, it would surprise many to learn that, during that period of almost a century, only 11 footballers have played for both clubs.
That's a long way off the 51 players who have turned out for both the Bulldogs and North Melbourne in the same period, the 40 who have been both Kangaroos and Swans, and even the 36 footballers who have played for the Swans and Hawthorn.
The reasons for the low flow of traffic between the Cats and Hawks are a matter of conjecture. Geelong's relative remoteness to the suburb of Hawthorn could be one possibility, given the surfeit of other clubs within Melbourne's inner suburban ring. But that hasn't stopped the Cats and Dogs swapping 27 players in the same period (although admittedly getting from Geelong to Footscray does not require a trip across Melbourne city).
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Perhaps the flow of traffic has been stifled by the intense rivalry, bordering on hatred, that has developed between the two clubs since the 'Great Grand Final' of 1989. The bone-crushing collisions of that day still reverberate through the football world more than three decades later, figuratively at least. While the combatants of the day have become good friends personally since that epic clash, the fierceness of the club-to-club rivalry has intensified.
Much of that has been because of Hawthorn's upset win over Geelong in the 2008 Grand Final when the Cats were raging favourites, and the subsequent 'Kennett's Curse' period, during which Geelong won 11 consecutive matches against the Hawks over five years.
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Notwithstanding the intense rivalry between the two clubs over the last three decades, the movement of players from one club to the other has actually increased in that period. Of the five Cats to become Hawks since Hawthorn joined the league in 1925, three — Austin McCrabb, Aaron Lord and Jonathan Simpkin (left) — have done so since the epic 1989 Grand Final. And of the six Hawks to move to Kardinia Park, three — Tim Allen, Tim Hargreaves and David Loats — have made the move since 1989.
That's a total of six players in 30 years. It's a small number when compared to traffic between some other pairs of clubs, but significant when considering that only five players made the move in the first 65 seasons the Hawks and Cats were part of the same league. So while the fierce rivalry that exists between the two clubs might not be the overriding factor in the limited flow of traffic from Geelong to Hawthorn and vice versa, quite a stir is created whenever a new move is made.
Such has been the case in the past week, after it was announced that triple premiership Hawk Isaac Smith had accepted a two-year contract offer from Geelong, rejecting a longer-term deal offered by Melbourne. Had Smith accepted the Demons' offer, it would likely have caused little more than a murmur among footy circles, but his decision to reject it in favour of one from a 'sworn enemy' blindsided many.
In making the move, Smith will become the 12th player to have been both a Hawk and a Cat, and diehards from both clubs would probably not think it inappropriate to refer to the full list as a 'Dirty Dozen'.
'God' moves in mysterious ways
Perhaps the greatest factor in the seeming reluctance of the Hawks and Cats willing to trade players came five years before that pulsating premiership playoff in 1989.
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Gary Ablett was enticed to join older brother Geoff at Glenferrie Oval in 1982, playing six games and kicking 10 goals. He showed enough to be recognised as a rare talent, but city life and the hard-line discipline of Hawthorn coach Allan Jeans was not agreeable to young Gary, and he retreated to the comfort of his home town of Drouin, a sleepy hollow in West Gippsland, 90 kilometres out of Melbourne.
Ablett played no VFL footy in 1983, but he was enticed back to the 'big league' by Tom Hafey, who was coaching Geelong, in 1984. While the stringent requirements of professional football remained a stumbling block for Ablett, the fact that the city of Geelong was also a 'sleepy hollow' — albeit a much larger one than Drouin — eventually convinced him to stick at VFL footy.
The rest, as they say, is history. Ablett became one of the greatest (some say the greatest) footballers in V/AFL history, and his nine-goal Norm Smith Medal-winning effort almost gave the Cats victory in that fabled 1989 Grand Final. While Hawthorn continued to win premierships without Gary Ablett, the Hawks hierarchy must wonder if their flag tally might have been higher still had Gary Ablett stayed at Glenferrie Oval, not just through the man who became known as 'God' himself, but through his son Gary Junior, who many believe has a had a career at least the equal of his divine Dad.
In the beginning...
Bill 'Chunga' Hudd became the first VFL footballer to be both a Cat and a Hawk when he ran out with the Mayblooms in the opening round of the 1929 season. Hudd had played 29 games for Geelong, the last of which was the 1925 Grand Final win, before spending two seasons at Essendon and some time with VFA club Yarraville.
Next cab off the rank was Harold Maskell. Like Hudd, Maskell made his way from Geelong to Hawthorn indirectly. He played nine games for the Cats in 1932 before spending the 1934 season with Carlton. Maskell played one final game for the Blues against Richmond in Round 3 1935 before bobbing up at Hawthorn six weeks later, his first game for the Hawks also against the Tigers. He played one further gamed in brown and gold that year and six more in 1936 before his short VFL career came to a close.
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Incredibly, it would be another 56 years before a former Geelong player would pull on a Hawks jumper in anger. Austin McCrabb (left) became the first player to cross directly from the Cats to Hawthorn when he took the field against Collingwood on ANZAC Day 1992.
Mid-season movers
In terms of players heading in the opposite direction — from Hawthorn to Geelong — there were none for the first half century of the teams' time together in the VFL. The first Hawk to become a Cat was Kelvin Matthews, younger brother of Leigh, who switched from stripes to hoops midway through the 1978 season.
Matthews and Maskell are the only two of the 11 to make the move between the two clubs during a season.
Return to sender
Kelvin Matthews was the first of the Hawks/Cats to play more than 50 games for both clubs. Matthews backed up his 97 Hawthorn games with 58 for the Cats. Aaron Lord is the only other player from the group to make the 50 mark at both clubs, but he had to return to his club of origin to complete the feat. Lord kicked off his career with 32 games for the Cats, then played 93 for the Hawks before returning to Kardinia Park to take his Geelong games total to 57.
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