Garry Hocking

Garry Andrew Hocking (born 8 October 1968) is a former Australian rules footballer and the current assistant coach at Collingwood in the Australian Football League (AFL). He was formerly the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) senior coach of the Port Adelaide Magpies squad,[2] and he served as caretaker coach of Port Adelaide in the AFL for 4 games in 2012, replacing the sacked Matthew Primus. For a brief period in 1999, he was known as Whiskas in a deal with the cat-food manufacturer.

Not to be confused with Gary Hocking.

Garry Hocking
Personal information
Full name Garry Andrew Hocking
Nickname(s) Buddha[1]
Date of birth (1968-10-08) 8 October 1968
Original team(s) Cobram
Height 182 cm (6 ft 0 in)
Weight 87 kg (192 lb)
Position(s) Midfielder
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1987–2001 Geelong 274 (243)
Representative team honours
Years Team Games (Goals)
1992–1999 Victoria ? (?)
Coaching career3
Years Club Games (W–L–D)
2012 Port Adelaide 4 (0–3–1)
2014–2015 Port Adelaide (SANFL) 41 (26–15–0)
2017 South Adelaide (SANFL) 18 (8–10–0)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 2001.
3 Coaching statistics correct as of 2017.
Career highlights
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Playing career

Hailing from Cobram, Hocking was part of then Geelong coach John Devine's mass recruiting drive which also netted players such as Gavin Exell, Bruce Lindner, Dwayne Russell, Mark Bairstow and Anthony "Billy" Brownless in the mid-1980s.

Hocking represented Victoria on numerous occasions in the State of Origin series and played in four losing Grand Final sides (1989, 1992, 1994, 1995).

Hocking was considered unlucky not to win the Brownlow Medal, due to his many close finishes, finishing amongst the top three vote-getters on four occasions, although twice as an ineligible player. Hocking's consistency over a period was recognised by the club in 1995 when after former-captain Bairstow's departure at the end of 1994, Hocking was given the captaincy role for the 1995 season. However early in the season, he stated his intentions to give up the captaincy to concentrate purely on playing. The role would be shared between three players; Ken Hinkley, Barry Stoneham and Gary Ablett.

Hocking's tenacity, hardness, consistency and quality was rewarded in 2001 when he was named ruck-rover in Geelong's Team of the Century; a great honour given the fact there have been other quality ruck-rovers in Geelong's history.

In the late 1990s (1999) Hocking was part of a promotion with cat-food company Whiskas, where for a short period of time he changed his name by deed-poll to "Whiskas". He announced this on The Footy Show. This was to help lessen the financial burden that the Geelong Football Club was facing at the time.

Hocking retired at the end of the 2001 AFL season after playing 274 games, which at the time was the third highest number of games for Geelong. He was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame on 8 March 2008.

Coaching career

Peel Thunder

After his playing career, which ended in 2001, Hocking moved into coaching. In 2005, he coached Peel Thunder Football Club in the WAFL, a team which was struggling and managed to win just 4 games for the year in 2005. In one match, Hocking employed a tactic where every player on the Peel team was stationed in defense for a centre-bounce. Known as a "full-flood", this was viewed as a farcical situation, and one that Hocking wanted to use with his team down by a massive margin. Hocking has promised never to use the tactic again, and has said that in this one instance, it was appropriate for the circumstance.[3][4]

Geelong Falcons

In 2006, Hocking was the coach for the Geelong Falcons Under 18s side.

Port Adelaide

At the end of the 2009 AFL season, Hocking joined the coaching staff at Port Adelaide. On 6 August 2012, he was appointed caretaker coach for the remainder of the 2012 season after Matthew Primus was sacked.[5] On 4 October 2013, Hocking was announced as the SANFL senior coach of Port Adelaide, a position he held in 2014 and 2015 before returning to be an assistant coach at Port Adelaide's AFL squad.[6] Hocking left Port Adelaide at the end of the 2016 season.

South Adelaide

In 2017, Hocking was appointed senior coach of the South Adelaide Panthers Football Club in the SANFL for 2 years.

Collingwood

At the end of 2017, Hocking returned to the AFL by accepting a position as assistant coach at Collingwood for the 2018 season.[7] He was appointed senior coach of the club's VFL (reserves) side ahead of the 2020 season.[8]

Statistics

Playing statistics
[9]
Legend
 G  Goals  B  Behinds  K  Kicks  H  Handballs  D  Disposals  M  Marks  T  Tackles
AFL playing statistics
Season Team No. Games Totals Averages (per game) Votes
G B K H D M T G B K H D M T
1987 Geelong 516214126671070.30.26.84.311.21.71.20
1988 Geelong 32300261743740.00.08.75.714.32.31.30
1989 Geelong 3226241228521750281560.90.511.08.319.33.12.212
1990 Geelong 3221141227820448260400.70.613.29.723.02.91.90
1991 Geelong 3225412836226562770471.61.114.510.625.12.81.919
1992 Geelong 3220191823523046577431.00.911.811.523.33.92.20
1993 Geelong 3218181728418647074311.00.915.810.326.14.11.717
1994 Geelong 3224162033827361185480.70.814.111.425.53.52.020
1995 Geelong 322115827021648677490.70.412.910.323.13.72.317
1996 Geelong 3223211531327058385660.90.713.611.725.33.72.919
1997 Geelong 322027925519244780491.40.512.89.622.44.02.52
1998 Geelong 321712423417040461400.70.213.810.023.83.62.414
1999 Geelong 32127415810526348180.60.313.28.821.94.01.55
2000 Geelong 322117325521747270590.80.112.110.322.53.32.87
2001 Geelong 321710912212825045530.60.57.27.514.72.63.11
Career 274 243 160 3456 2716 6172 930 610 0.9 0.6 12.6 9.9 22.5 3.4 2.2 133

Coaching statistics
[10]
Legend
 W  Wins  L  Losses  D  Draws  W%  Winning percentage  LP  Ladder position  LT  League teams
Season Team Games W L D W % LP LT
2012 Port Adelaide 403112.5%N/AN/A
Career totals 4 0 3 1 12.5%

Honours

References
  1. "Garry Hocking book extract". 15 July 2009. Archived from the original on 18 July 2009.
  2. "Garry Hocking, SANFL Coach". portadelaidefc.com.au. Port Adelaide Football Club. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  3. Flood reaches shocking level
  4. "Flood Tactics a Blight on the Game". Archived from the original on 30 September 2005.
  5. Club statement: Primus & Duncanson portadelaidefc 6 August 2012
  6. http://www.portadelaidefc.com.au/news/2015-09-15/hocking-to-vacate-sanfl-coaching-role
  7. "Hocking added to coaching panel".
  8. "Collingwood confirms coaching panel". Collingwood FC. 8 October 2019.
  9. Garry Hocking's player profile at AFL Tables
  10. "AFL Tables - Garry Hocking - Coaching Record". afltables.com.
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