Geelong great Tom Hawkins will take an unwanted personal milestone into next Friday night's record-equalling AFL clash with Port Adelaide.
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Hawkins will join former teammate Joel Selwood on 355 games, the club record. He is equal 19th on the all-time AFL list alongside Lance Franklin and Travis Boak.
But Hawkins has also gone four-straight games without kicking a goal for the first time in his career.
He only managed 0.1 on Saturday night against Melbourne as Geelong lost for the first time this season and also conceded top spot on the ladder to Sydney.
Geelong coach Chris Scott defended Hawkins and fellow key forward Jeremy Cameron, who was restricted to 0.3 and missed two set shots in the last term as they went down by only eight points.
"He'll come out at some point. But at the risk of sounding defensive, I'm not sure how many goals Hawk has kicked in his career ... what I'm certain of is he's given away a lot more than other key forward in the history of the game," Scott said of Hawkins.
"To measure his influence on our team by goals alone, it's a sexy stat. We maybe have been too conscious of Hawk and he might be a victim of what he's done in the past."
Scott added there is nothing wrong with Hawkins physically. "He may be a little bit off, but it's not a physical thing," the Cats coach said.
Asked about Cameron, Scott said: "If we had another shot and we could give it to anyone, I'd give it to Jeremy. It's one of those things. Hawk had his chances as well."
Scott was philosophical about the loss, noting key players such as Cameron and Hawkins did not have good games.
"The bottom line is we had our chances to win the game with a lot of guys off - I don't know there would be many of our guys thinking they had really good days," he said.
"But we were pleased with how they hung in there. The exciting part is that every team is going to have nights like that, but the good ones are the ones who will hang in there and give themselves a chance.
"We had some players who didn't quite finish off, but that's a rarity. You wouldn't have thought that's typical of the way we play."
Taylor Bruhn was subbed off mid-game with a shoulder injury and Scott is hopeful it is not serious.
Australian Associated Press
