Hawthorn: team first (fantastic article)

[Philhawk]

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/rfnews/hawthorn-team-first/2009/08/19/1250362118817.html

Hawthorn: team first

Michael Gordon | August 20, 2009

THE night before Hawthorn's 2008 campaign began, against Melbourne at the MCG, Alastair Clarkson joked with the other coaches that there was just "one more sleep" before the real work began.

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/rfnews/hawthorn-team-first/2009/08/19/1250362118817.html

What a fantastic article.

 

[Hawker4Sewell]

I just read it,
such a good read. And a really well written article.

His sign off is brilliant, the whole - not revising a positive outlook despite 2009 -

 

[beau river]

Great read. I love the little stories and details, which you dont often get throught the mass media.

The Hawthorn website should provide more of this stuff. Their articles can be fairly bland, and not that interesting for supporters. THey should use more of their inside access to provide the details and anecdotes which fans want.

I want to know what type of car Roughie drives.

 

[mustardnugget]

Just awesome...

If we could see a couple of respectable performances over the next two weeks I'll quite happily sit patiently until 2010 when a rested, more calculated Hawthorn runs out onto the field.

Either way, that article has made my night...

 

[Rioli]

That was delicious.

 

[tommyk72]

Just read it on the age website and was coming straight on here to post it, but you beat me to it!

Sensational article. All those who say Clarko needs to go can get stuffed.

 

[Collins-Langford-Ayres]

I'll put my hand up and admit I am not aware of the journalist Michael Gordon.

I will now pay close attention to every article he writes.

This is the best piece of Hawthorn-related football journalism for 2009 in my opinion.

Mods, maybe we could start something like an award for the best piece of Hawthorn journalism, each year. People put forward their proposals at the end of the season, you then run a secret poll and publish the results with a little fanfare. I can see it now:

Congratulations to Michael Gordon for winning the Hawthorn Football Club BigFooty 2009 Article of the Year

 

[Hawk Vision]

Great article and is pretty much summarises why people that support the club, love the club.

It also explains 2009 to a degree, see below:

The big difference between Schwab's last three years and Clarkson's beginning was that, from 2005, there was an organisation-wide philosophy that was aimed at delivering success down the track - and everyone from the CEO to the property steward was committed to it.

"I don't think there was a person other than me in a role they had performed elsewhere," explained Andrew Russell, the head fitness coach. ''Everyone was proving themselves. Everyone was almost starting at the bottom and saying well, 'I haven't proven anything yet'.''

Now they have achieved that success what now???

 

[carntheroos4eva]

It just proves that some of our supporters have a short memory....

That article is awesome and so accurate as well. It shows us that the journo who wrote it has taken the time to properly research everything instead of merely speculating over things that they don't usually know about.

 

[Prentiss McCabe]

I stand to be corrected, however i suspect a great deal of this article is an extract from One For All, which is launched today, an author of which is Michael Gordon along with his father Harry, who wrote the highly collectable The Hard Way as a matter of interest.

And as such I reccommend each and every one of you go out and buy a copy, i know i shall.

 

[RustyHawk]

I'll put my hand up and admit I am not aware of the journalist Michael Gordon.

I will now pay close attention to every article he writes.

This is the best piece of Hawthorn-related football journalism for 2009 in my opinion.

Mods, maybe we could start something like an award for the best piece of Hawthorn journalism, each year. People put forward their proposals at the end of the season, you then run a secret poll and publish the results with a little fanfare. I can see it now:

Congratulations to Michael Gordon for winning the Hawthorn Football Club BigFooty 2009 Article of the Year

C-L-A

Michael Gordon is co author with his father Harry Gordon on The Hard Way follow up "One for All" which is in stock at the Hawks Nest Waverley Park. I bought my copy for just below $70.00

The official launch was today at the M.C.G. and Crawf is spruiking the book on the Footy Show tonight.

 

[sir_jaycee]

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/rfnews/hawthorn-team-first/2009/08/19/1250362118817.html



http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/rfnews/hawthorn-team-first/2009/08/19/1250362118817.html

What a fantastic article.

I just ordered the book online after reading that article. cannot wait for delivery !!

 

[thatswhatimtalkinabout]

I'll put my hand up and admit I am not aware of the journalist Michael Gordon.

I will now pay close attention to every article he writes.

This is the best piece of Hawthorn-related football journalism for 2009 in my opinion.

I stand to be corrected, however i suspect a great deal of this article is a excerpt from One For All, which is launched today, an author of which is Michael Gordon along with his father Harry, who wrote the highly collectable The Hard Way as a matter of interest.

And as such I reccommend each and every one of you go out and buy a copy, i know i shall.

I second that endorsement PMC.

My copy of "The Hard Way" is nearly half as old as I am now, and has been a treasured archive of our history, providing knowledge and enjoyment.

I suspected that Michael might be Harry Gordon's son when first opening the article and it was great to see that continuation, a sort of passing of the baton as such.

For those interested in Harry's biography as of 1990 when THW was published:

"Harry Gordon is a well known journalist, newspaper editor and author. This is his eigth book. One of them, 'An Eyewitness History of Australia', won both the National Book Council's first prize for Australian Literature and the Barbara Ramsden Award as best book of the year by an Australian author.

Among his other books were 'Die like the Carp!' (the story of the Japanese prison breakout at Cowra), 'Gold Medal Girl' (Dawn Fraser's biography), 'Young Men in a Hurry', 'The Embarrassing Australian' and 'Bicentennial', a series of essays on Australia.

He was a war correspondent in Korea and a sports columnist before five years as editor of The Melbourne Sun. He was later editor-in-chief of both The Herald & Weekly Times and the Queensland Press Groups, and is contributing editor of Time Australia.

He has won many awards, including a Walkley special commendation, three U.N. Media Prize gold citations and a CMG for distinguished service to journalism. For his campaigning in the field of road safety the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons honoured him with it's Graeme Grove Award.

Harry Gordon has had a long association with The Hawthorn Football Club, and is a club patron."

Says Ronald Barassi in the foreword of THW:

"To describe Harry Gordon as a Hawk fan is an understatement. As many have discovered, his love and admiration of the Brown & Gold knows no bounds.

Yet, even allowing for his deep love of the club, it is his training and experience as a successful journalist, editor and author that comes to the fore in this book. He has skilfully blended accounts of Hawthorn's very beginnings with an incisive insight into the reasons why the Glenferrie mob went from easybeats to one of the great clubs of Australian sport.....

......Hawthorn's highs and lows are faithfully described, as is the occasional administrative squabble. Harry has worked hard to take this history well past the usual fact, figures and names standard. He has woven into the yarn, a glimpse of what makes Hawthorn tick.

To the outsider, Hawthorn's story is one of intrigue. They have successfully managed to maintain the old fashioned footy club principles and styles, attributes that are to be admired when you consider the new values of modern day society.

As happens, the successful methods of a champion or champion club are copied. So it has been with Hawthorn. For the sake of our great game I can only hope many more take heed."

 

[CAPTAINCRAWF]

Great read, I love these types of insights. How great is this club

 

[TBoyleSuperstar]

Fantastic article. Really was.

hoping that they now sit down and reassess our goals and what we would consider success, and look to focus towards that for next year.

Will certainly have to grab that book.

 

[Prentiss McCabe]

Thank you TWITA, you are obviously a wise and discerning gentleman, there are some authors in this world that are good writers and then there are the Gordons, Harry and Michael, who like Les Carlyon are master craftsmen of their trade who research detail infinitely and let their words flow, i must confess i have been anticipating this release since i pre-ordered some time ago.





I dread this day, The Oval of course, second only to Wimbledon as a PR maestros' bane of existence and worthy of ire, A graders whining that Jeremy Clarkson has broken their car, B graders who want to sit within shouting distance of Sir Elton, but not close enough to hear him shout back and C graders pouting for the Daily Mail hoping they get captured having their knee squeezed by Cat Deeley or alternatively whining to The Sun about getting felt up by James May under the long room table.

Lets hope the Australians win in three days again eh

 

[Bosk]

Great article that one, thanks for posting it.

I read The Hard Way years ago and it provided a ton of insight into how things actually work inside the club and the 'inner sanctum'. I'll have to get my hands on this new one at some stage.