Garry Hocking
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| Garry Hocking | ||||||||
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| Personal information | ||||||||
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| Full name | Garry Andrew Hocking | |||||||
| Date of Birth | October 8, 1968 | |||||||
| Place of Birth | ||||||||
| Recruited from | Cobram | |||||||
| Height/Weight | 182cm / 84kg | |||||||
| Playing Career1 | ||||||||
| Years | Club | Games (Goals) | ||||||
| 1987 – 2001 | Geelong | 274 (243) | ||||||
| ¹ Club statistics to end of 2001 season | ||||||||
² Representative statistics to end of {{{repstatsend}}}
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Garry "Buddha" Hocking (born October 8, 1968), is a former Australian rules footballer and coach.
Hocking played 274 games for the Geelong Football Club in the AFL between 1987 and 2001. He was renowned as a tough midfielder. He was part of John Devine's mass recruiting drive which also netted players such as Gavin Exell, Bruce Lindner, Dwayne Russell, Mark Bairstow and William Brownless.
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 is considered unlucky not to win the Brownlow Medal, due to his many close finishes, finishing in the top four on many occasions. 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 1990's (1998) 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.
After his playing career, which ended in 2001, Hocking moved into the coaching arena. 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.
In 2006, Hocking has taken up the coaching reins at Geelong Falcons Under 18s.
He was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame on March 8th, 2008.
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| Preceded by Barry Stoneham |
Geelong Best and Fairest winner 1991 |
Succeeded by Ken Hinkley |
| Preceded by Ken Hinkley |
Geelong Best and Fairest winner 1993 – 1994 |
Succeeded by Paul Couch |
| Preceded by Paul Couch |
Geelong Best and Fairest winner 1996 |
Succeeded by Liam Pickering |
