By Andrew Wu
Jack Ginnivan departed Collingwood with a premiership medal around his neck, leaving behind a club whose finals hopes are in disarray and that is now going through the bleakest period of Craig McRae’s celebrated tenure.
He has come to a club, the one he supported as a child, with every reason to believe he can play finals in his first year.
Ginnivan has had his cake and eaten it too.
Such was Ginnivan’s exuberance, he dropped the F-bomb on live TV (not finals but the one you can’t print in full), as he revelled in a 66-point win against the club that tipped him out days after last year’s grand final success.
Games against your former club rarely come as sweet as this. In front of a crowd of 74,171, who cheered and jeered him in equal measure, Ginnivan rolled out a career-best game of 31 disposals and two goals.
The many faces and moods of Jack Ginnivan.Credit: Darrian Traynor / Getty Images
The anticipatory murmurs of “Ginni” preceding every possession was followed by boos from his former supporters. But the one-time poster boy of the black and white army did not mind. When he capped off his red-letter game with a goal, he rushed to the Hawthorn faithful to celebrate.
At the ensuing centre bounce, he had his arms raised triumphantly at the Punt Road End goal square, absorbing the love of his new football family.
“The sense of theatre of the game was fantastic,” Hawks coach Sam Mitchell said. “All of the 74,000 that came would’ve loved the theatre of the game today.
“But for us it was really important that he played his role and did his job, and he did more than that.”
Such a performance seemed fanciful during his time in the black and white. The Pies deployed a rigid (and flag-winning) system which he has said did not allow him to fully express his talents, and he did not have the required fitness.
At Collingwood, Ginnivan operated closer to goal. The Hawks want him higher up the ground where he can be part of the possession chains that bring the ball forward.
“We obviously play a different system and game style to Collingwood and he fits into a different position,” Mitchell said.
With his ability to attract headlines, Ginnivan seems to have been around for longer than he has. He’s only 21. Theoretically, his best is still a long way from now.
“But it’s all come off the back of an enormous work ethic and a desire to prove that he can be a fantastic and well-rounded player and not a flash in the pan,” Mitchell said.
“To his credit, two-thirds of the way through his first season with us he’s doing a lot right.”
So too are the Hawks, who, after their 10th win from their past 13 matches, are a serious chance to make an unlikely finals appearance well ahead of schedule.
There was hardly a player in brown and gold who did not complete their job. James Sicily was brave in defence, marking with the confidence of a man who does not have a dislocated shoulder.
Their midfield, with the unlikely Lloyd Meek setting the tone in the ruck, was dominant. Will Day and Jai Newcombe have become the faces of their rebuilt midfield but Conor Nash and James Worpel are the unheralded heroes behind closed doors. The quartet combined for 108 possessions.
Mabior Chol is playing with an urgency seen only fleetingly in his previous eight seasons on an AFL list, which is allowing his considerable ability to be displayed more consistently. With two goals and 14 disposals, he claimed the honours against Darcy Moore.
Massimo D’Ambrosio has been a revelation on the wing. Connor Macdonald, across half-forward, is another who has made a leap.
The outlook is not so bright at Collingwood. Mathematically, the reigning premiers remain in the finals mix, but they have spent long periods this season resembling an also ran. In McRae’s words, they are “on the edge of being losers”.
In conditions that demanded unwavering commitment of mind and body, the Pies were pathetic, unable and unwilling to go the extra mile.
Numbers can sometimes distort the picture, but not in this game. The Pies could not get their hands on the ball, as seen by the lopsided possession count of 434-288, a differential (146) seldom seen at this level. Smacked at the contest, they gave up territory and goals, and had enormous difficulty scoring themselves. For some two and a half quarters, they were mired on one goal.
Apart from Nick Daicos, there are few, if any, Pies at or near their top. Jordan De Goey (16 disposals) is labouring, his dodgy groins robbing him of his explosiveness. Though never quick, the gap between Scott Pendlebury’s speed of thought to execution is widening.
Moore and Isaac Quaynor, both enduring underwhelming campaigns, kept their side in it early but did little thereafter. Moore and Jeremy Howe took just four marks between them, which is a measure of Hawthorn’s delivery inside 50, the lack of pressure up the field, and their diminished form. Bobby Hill has moments, but not much else.
McRae was troubled by his team’s disorganisation at stoppages, alarmed at how they could set up with an extra three around the ball, giving them no chance of winning the ball down the field. Such flaws can be quickly fixed, McRae said, and they need to be.
“We lost today, and we’re right on the edge of being losers,” McRae said, revisiting a line he used to criticise their body language after a narrow loss in the 2022 finals series.
“You can lose and still be winners, and we’re right on the edge. We addressed that, talking about what that looks like going forward. Regardless of whatever is to be done, we want to be winners doing it.”
The Brayden Maynard incident during the loss to Hawthorn.Credit: Fox Footy
The Pies’ dirty day was compounded by a concussion to Nathan Kreuger, who was subbed off in the first quarter, and potential match review trouble for Brayden Maynard for a high fend on Ginnivan.
Ginnivan played out the game though came off briefly for treatment which may give weight to a grading of the impact as medium, resulting in a one-game ban.
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