Garry Andrew Hocking (born 8 October 1968) is a former

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

er who played for the

Geelong Football Club The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed the Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The club competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier competition, and are the 2022 ...

in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(AFL). Tough and skilled in equal measure, Hocking was an integral part of Geelong's midfield who was recognized at both club and League level as one of the finest players of the 1990s, winning club best and fairests, All-Australian honours and finishing top three in the

Brownlow Medal The Charles Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal (and informally as "Charlie"), is awarded to the " best and fairest" player in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the home-and-away season, as determined by votes cast by ...

vote count on four occasions. Recognizable on the field with his curly brown mullet hairstyle and nicknamed "Buddha", Hocking was inducted into the

Australian Football Hall of Fame The Australian Football Hall of Fame was established in 1996, the Centenary year of the Australian Football League, to help recognise the contributions made to the sport of Australian rules football by players, umpires, media personalities, coa ...

in 2008, and was also named in Geelong's Team of the Century and Hall of Fame. Since retiring from playing, Hocking has coached at various clubs. He coached AFL side in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

for four games after

Matthew Primus Matthew Richard Primus (born 12 January 1975) is a former coach of the Port Adelaide Football Club and Australian rules footballer, captain and All-Australian ruckman. He was also previously an assistant coach at the Gold Coast Football Club. ...

was sacked, the Port Adelaide

SANFL The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's governing body for the sport. Originally formed as the ...

side, , and the VFL side.

Early years

Hailing from the border town of

Cobram Cobram is a town in the Australian state of Victoria. It is on the Murray River which forms the border between Victoria and New South Wales. Cobram along with the nearby towns of Numurkah and Yarrawonga is part of Shire of Moira and is the admi ...

in north-eastern

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, Hocking was one of three sons born to Les Hocking and his wife Pam. He also has one sister. Les worked as a hairdresser at 'Plugger' Bourke's barber shop, and young Garry served an apprenticeship with him before moving to Geelong.

Playing career

Hocking and elder brother Steve were part of then Geelong coach John Devine's mass recruiting drive which also netted players such as

Gavin Exell Gavin Exell (born 16 October 1962) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Geelong and Fitzroy in the VFL/AFL. Exell started his career at Carlton where he played reserves football but after being unable to break into the se ...

Bruce Lindner Bruce Norman Lindner (born 20 June 1961) is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Geelong Football Club and Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He is the nephew of legendary footba ...

Dwayne Russell Shane John Russell (born 4 March 1965) known as Dwayne Russell is a former professional Australian rules footballer and currently a commentator of the sport. Born in Adelaide, Russell made his senior football debut as a sixteen-year-old in 198 ...

, Mark Bairstow and

Billy Brownless Anthony William Brownless (born 28 January 1967) is a former Australian rules footballer and radio and television media personality who represented in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the 1980s and 1990s. Early life Brownless was ...

in the mid-1980s. Hocking made his senior VFL debut in the

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

Round 3 match against at

Kardinia Park Kardinia Park is a major public park located in South Geelong, Victoria. A number of public and sporting facilities are located in the park: a major AFL stadium, a secondary football oval, a cricket field, an open air swimming pool, a number of ...

, wearing the number 51. He became one of a special group of footballers by scoring a goal on debut with his first kick, but otherwise had a quiet match with seven touches. The following season, Hocking's guernsey number was changed to 32, which he would wear for the remainder of his career, but only played three games in the second half of the season. It would not be until

Malcolm Blight Malcolm Jack Blight AM (born 16 February 1950) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for and coached the North Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL) and Woodville Football Club in the South Australian Nati ...

took over as coach in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

that Hocking would play regular football and establish his place in the team. That year Geelong became the glamour team of the competition, twice kicking a score of over 200 points and drawing fans to games with their flamboyant, all-out attacking brand of football. Hocking represented Victoria on numerous occasions in the

State of Origin A State of Origin competition is a type of sporting event between players representing their state or territory. State of Origin began in Australian rules football on 8 October 1977 between Western Australia (WA) and Victoria, at Subiaco Oval ...

series and played in four losing Grand Final sides (1989, 1992, 1994, 1995). Hocking was considered unlucky not to win the

, 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 Ken Hinkley (born 30 September 1966) is the senior coach of the Port Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) and a former player with the Geelong Football Club and Fitzroy Football Club. Early life Hinkley was born in ...

Barry Stoneham Barry Stoneham (born 9 February 1968) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Geelong Football Club between 1986 and 2000. Stoneham appeared 241 times for Geelong in the AFL and kicked 223 goals. Stoneham developed into on ...

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. The Cats made it to the finals in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

but again were bundled out in straight sets. By the middle of the

1999 AFL season The 1999 AFL season was the 103rd season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured six ...

, Geelong was in crisis on and off the field. After winning the first five games, the Cats would then lose the next nine in a row to effectively end any chance of making the finals. The club was also in deep financial trouble, owing a debt of around $7.5 million with a forecast operating loss of $750,000 for the season. At the start of the year the Cats had made some organizational changes, with prominent local businessman and club vice-president

Frank Costa Frank Aloysius Costa (3 February 1938 – 2 May 2021) was an Australian businessman. Costa had been a prominent figure in the Geelong region for more than four decades after inheriting Costa Group, the family's produce business, in the late 1 ...

appointed club president after predecessor Ron Hovey stepped down at the end of 1998, Brian Cook was recruited from as

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

, and Hocking was named stand-in captain after newly appointed captain

Leigh Colbert Leigh Colbert (born 7 June 1975) is a former Australian rules footballer for the Geelong Football Club and the Kangaroos in the Australian Football League (AFL). AFL career 1993–1999: Geelong He made his debut with Geelong in 1993 an ...

injured his knee in a pre-season match against .
Midway through the nine-game losing streak, Cook approached Hocking with an unusual proposal.

Uncle Ben's Ben's Original, formerly called Uncle Ben's, is an American brand of parboiled rice and other related food products that was introduced by Converted Rice Inc., which is now owned by Mars, Inc. Its headquarters are in Denver Harbor, Houston, Texas ...

, the parent company of cat food label

Whiskas Whiskas (formerly known as Kal Kan) is a brand of cat food sold internationally. It is owned by the American company Mars, Incorporated. It is available either as small meaty pieces in sauce, gravy or jelly packaged in tins, foil trays or pouch ...

at the time, would provide a financial incentive for the club if a Cats player was willing to change his name to "Whiskas" for one game. Hocking agreed to the offer and changed his name by deed-poll to "Whiskas" for one week. He announced this on '' The Footy Show''. The incident was met with mixed reaction in the football world. When asked about his publicity stunt, Hocking commented:

I see it as a great thing for the footy club and Whiskas. It is just a light-hearted thing and from a commercial point of view to help get the club out of strife.

The AFL refused to acknowledge Hocking's name change and continued to use his original name on team lists. The League's reasoning was that the name change, although temporary, threatened to bring the game into disrepute. Geelong ended up losing the upcoming match against , and Hocking was off the field injured by three-quarter time, but the financial incentive, which has to date not been publicly disclosed, went some way to helping the club's financial situation. Hocking retired at the end of the

2001 AFL season The 2001 AFL season was the 105th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured six ...

after playing 274 games, which at the time was the third-highest number of games for Geelong. He was inducted into the

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 The Peel Thunder Football Club is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). The team is based in Mandurah, Western Australia, with their home ground being Rushton Park. The ...

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 defence 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.

Geelong Falcons

In 2006, Hocking was the coach for the

Geelong Falcons The Geelong Falcons is a youth Australian rules football representative club in the NAB League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition, Victoria, Australia. The club takes in talented junior players from the Geelong, Colac and Warrnamboo ...

Under 18s side.

Port Adelaide

At the end of the 2009 AFL season, Hocking joined the coaching staff at as an assistant coach. On 6 August 2012, he was appointed caretaker senior coach for the remainder of the 2012 season when

was sacked following the Round 19 loss to AFL newcomer . At the time of his appointment, Hocking felt unsure whether he wanted to continue as senior coach for the following season, and declared that while he had limited time to work with, he promised to foster an uncompromising attitude in the playing group:

"The expectation's not a win–loss one, it's just about gaining some respect back from our members and our supporters. It'll be a simple plan, you'll just need to play very aggressively and compete when it's your turn. There will be guidelines, benchmarks for those sorts of things that we're looking for in the game and that's all the players over the next four weeks will be judged on."

Hocking then decided against applying for the full-time role as senior coach of Port Adelaide at the end of the 2012 season, on 4 September 2012 and was replaced by

as Port Adelaide Football Club senior coach. On 4 October 2013, Hocking was announced as the

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. Hocking left Port Adelaide at the end of the 2016 season. In 2020, Port veteran and football media personality

Kane Cornes Kane Graham Cornes (born 5 January 1983) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Port Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Early life A product of Sacred Heart College and Glenelg in the SANFL, ...

recalled Hocking's first address to the players as senior coach on the day of his appointment in 2012 and the brutal training session at Grange Beach early the following morning:

It’s 4am in the morning at Grange Beach and I’ve never seen the ocean put on an uglier display. There was waves crashing over, it was as cold as you can imagine. Buddha said ‘Strip down we’re about to pay the price’, so we all got into our budgie smugglers or board shorts ... usually when coaches have this sort of quick dip you do a few duck dives and get out but this was completely different. We stayed out in that freezing cold water for over an hour at 4am and it is honestly the coldest that I have ever been, to the point where you really question whether you wanted to keep doing this, that’s how depressing it was to turn up to a footy club when you lose.

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. He was appointed senior coach of the club's VFL (reserves) side ahead of the 2020 season.

Leopold

2022, Started coaching at Leopold Football Club in Geelong.

Personal life

Hocking and his wife Melina have three children - daughters Tayla and Chelsea, and son Lochlan, who joined the

in 2019.

Statistics

Playing statistics

: , - , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 51 , , 6 , , 2 , , 1 , , 41 , , 26 , , 67 , , 10 , , 7 , , 0.3 , , 0.2 , , 6.8 , , 4.3 , , 11.2 , , 1.7 , , 1.2 , , 0 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 3 , , 0 , , 0 , , 26 , , 17 , , 43 , , 7 , , 4 , , 0.0 , , 0.0 , , 8.7 , , 5.7 , , 14.3 , , 2.3 , , 1.3 , , 0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 26 , , 24 , , 12 , , 285 , , 217 , , 502 , , 81 , , 56 , , 0.9 , , 0.5 , , 11.0 , , 8.3 , , 19.3 , , 3.1 , , 2.2 , , 12 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 21 , , 14 , , 12 , , 278 , , 204 , , 482 , , 60 , , 40 , , 0.7 , , 0.6 , , 13.2 , , 9.7 , , 23.0 , , 2.9 , , 1.9 , , 0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 25 , , 41 , , 28 , , 362 , , 265 , , 627 , , 70 , , 47 , , 1.6 , , 1.1 , , 14.5 , , 10.6 , , 25.1 , , 2.8 , , 1.9 , , 19 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 20 , , 19 , , 18 , , 235 , , 230 , , 465 , , 77 , , 43 , , 1.0 , , 0.9 , , 11.8 , , 11.5 , , 23.3 , , 3.9 , , 2.2 , , 0 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 18 , , 18 , , 17 , , 284 , , 186 , , 470 , , 74 , , 31 , , 1.0 , , 0.9 , , 15.8 , , 10.3 , , 26.1 , , 4.1 , , 1.7 , , 17 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 24 , , 16 , , 20 , , 338 , , 273 , , 611 , , 85 , , 48 , , 0.7 , , 0.8 , , 14.1 , , 11.4 , , 25.5 , , 3.5 , , 2.0 , , 20 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 21 , , 15 , , 8 , , 270 , , 216 , , 486 , , 77 , , 49 , , 0.7 , , 0.4 , , 12.9 , , 10.3 , , 23.1 , , 3.7 , , 2.3 , , 17 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 23 , , 21 , , 15 , , 313 , , 270 , , 583 , , 85 , , 66 , , 0.9 , , 0.7 , , 13.6 , , 11.7 , , 25.3 , , 3.7 , , 2.9 , , 19 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 20 , , 27 , , 9 , , 255 , , 192 , , 447 , , 80 , , 49 , , 1.4 , , 0.5 , , 12.8 , , 9.6 , , 22.4 , , 4.0 , , 2.5 , , 2 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 17 , , 12 , , 4 , , 234 , , 170 , , 404 , , 61 , , 40 , , 0.7 , , 0.2 , , 13.8 , , 10.0 , , 23.8 , , 3.6 , , 2.4 , , 14 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 12 , , 7 , , 4 , , 158 , , 105 , , 263 , , 48 , , 18 , , 0.6 , , 0.3 , , 13.2 , , 8.8 , , 21.9 , , 4.0 , , 1.5 , , 5 , - ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 21 , , 17 , , 3 , , 255 , , 217 , , 472 , , 70 , , 59 , , 0.8 , , 0.1 , , 12.1 , , 10.3 , , 22.5 , , 3.3 , , 2.8 , , 7 , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center" ,

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, style="text-align:center;", , 32 , , 17 , , 10 , , 9 , , 122 , , 128 , , 250 , , 45 , , 53 , , 0.6 , , 0.5 , , 7.2 , , 7.5 , , 14.7 , , 2.6 , , 3.1 , , 1 , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=3, 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

: , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" ! scope="row" style="text-align:center; font-weight:normal" ,

, style="text-align:center;", , 4 , , 0 , , 3 , , 1 , , 12.5% , , , , , - style="background-color: #EAEAEA" , - class="sortbottom" ! colspan=2, Career totals ! 4 ! 0 ! 3 ! 1 ! 12.5% ! colspan=2,

Honours

*Inducted into

in 2008 *

All-Australian Team The All-Australian team is an all-star team of Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules footballers, selected by a panel at the end of each season. It represents a complete team, including an interchange bench, of the best-perf ...

(1991, 1993, 1994, 1996) *

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...

Team of the Century (Ruck-Rover) *

Carji Greeves Medal The Carji Greeves Medal is a name given in recent decades to an Australian rules football award given to the player(s) adjudged best and fairest for the Geelong Football Club for the season. The voting system has changed a number of times. ...

(1991, 1993, 1994, 1996) ''(club record)'' *

top 3 (3rd 1991, 1994) *

most votes for

(1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998)

References

Bibliography

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hocking, Garry 1968 births Living people Geelong Football Club players Carji Greeves Medal winners All-Australians (AFL) Victorian State of Origin players Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia) Peel Thunder Football Club coaches Port Adelaide Football Club coaches Port Adelaide Football Club (SANFL) coaches Australian Football Hall of Fame inductees Cobram Football Club players