Garry Hocking

Garry Hocking
Personal information
Full name	Garry Andrew Hocking
Date of birth	8 October 1968 (1968-10-08)
Original team	Cobram
Height/Weight	182cms / 87kgs
Playing career1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
1987 – 2001	Geelong	274 (243)
1 Playing statistics to end of 2001 season .
Career highlights
Geelong Team of the Century Carji Greeves Medal 1991, 1993, 1994 and 1996 All Australian 1991, 1993, 1994 and 1996 State of Origin (VIctoria) 1998

Not to be confused with Gary Hocking.

Garry Andrew "Buddha" Hocking (born 8 October 1968), is a former Australian rules footballer and currently an assistant coach with the Port Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League.

Early Years

Garry was nicknamed "Buddha" by his father who came home one day when Garry was very young and saw him sitting in a chair watching television. Garry was a fat kid and Garry's father Les thought that Garry sitting on the chair resembled the porcelain statues of Buddha that Garry's mother Pam kept around the house. The nickname stuck.

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 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 1990s (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.

Hocking retired at the end of the 2001 AFL season after playing 274 games, at the time the 3rd highest amount of games for Geelong (currently 5th). He was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame on 8 March 2008.

Coaching Career

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.

At the end of the 2009 AFL season, it was announced that Hocking would join the coaching staff at Port Adelaide.

Honours

• Inducted into AFL Hall of Fame in 2008
• All-Australian Team (1991, 1993, 1994, 1996)
• Geelong Team of the Century (Ruck-Rover)
• Carji Greeves Medal (1991, 1993, 1994, 1996) (club record)
• Brownlow Medal top 3 (2nd 1993; 3rd 1991, 1994, 1995)
• Brownlow Medal most votes for Geelong (1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998)
• 5th all-time in games played for Geelong

External links

• Geelong Advertiser article on how Garry got his nickname
• Garry Hocking's statistics from AFL Tables
• Flood reaches shocking level
• Flood Tactics a Blight on the Game

Awards
Preceded by Barry Stoneham Ken Hinkley Paul Couch	Carji Greeves Medal 1991 1993–1994 1996	Succeeded by Ken Hinkley Paul Couch Liam Pickering