There is a group at Hawthorn called The Backbone.
It is made up of emerging leaders who are yet to progress into the club’s official leadership group but are showing all the signs that that is their pathway.
In a break-out season that saw him become a part of the club’s on-field backbone, Jarman Impey was also introduced to The Backbone.
It appears somewhat of a chicken-or-the-egg scenario.
Was it the running defender’s form that gave him the confidence to invest in his leadership capabilities?
Or was it the fact that, in just his second year in the brown and gold, he was embraced into an integral part of the club’s dynamic which allowed him to be at his best?
The 24-year-old has suggested that it was more so the latter.
This year saw Impey post career-high numbers all over the place.
16.5 disposals, 4.9 marks, 2.5 rebound 50s, 5.5 contested possessions and, perhaps most noticeably, 5.7 intercept possessions.
It was a campaign that saw the popular clubman awarded Most Consistent Player.
Impey may be spending at least the first half of the 2020 season on the sidelines, but the former Port Adelaide player who has just extended his tenure at the Hawks will undoubtedly come back bigger and better when his time comes.
