Crawford was the first Hawk to win the Brownlow outright and, he achieved his dream to play in a Premiership with his beloved Hawks in his 305th and final match in 2008. The record books will tell us this is the longest wait by a player to win a flag in VFL/AFL history.
Crawford started his extraordinary football career playing first with the Finley Football Club then for his school, Assumption College. He was drafted with the 13th pick in 1991 and made his debut in Round 1, 1993 - a 22-point victory over Melbourne. He went on to become the sixth player to register 300 games with the Hawks, and won numerous media awards during the course of his career.
As a very creative, hard running on-baller, he was constantly named amongst the Hawks' best players. His consistency is emphasised when you look at his record in the Peter Crimmins Medal. He won the Club’s most prestigious award four times - 1998, 1999, 2002 and 2003. This puts him in equal second in number of wins, along with Club Legend John Kennedy Snr and four time Premiership player, Jason Dunstall. For the record, Leigh Matthews with eight wins leads the way. Crawford also came second in 2001 and 2005.
The Hawks Museum is proud to host a tribute to Crawford, with one of the major features being three of his playing guernseys displayed. Crawford began his career when guernseys were still made from wool and he experienced the change to polyester fabric in 1996.
However, to make the Museum's tribute more representative of Crawford’s amazing career, the Museum sought a guernsey from his first season in 1993. Unfortunately, the Club does not possess a woolen Crawford guernsey. This is where Tony Dagostino, a Glenferrie Gold Life Patron of the Hawks Museum came to the rescue. The Museum curator was fortunate to be invited to see Tony’s amazing collection of Hawthorn memorabilia in his home in Western Australia. Tony has probably the largest collection of Crawford guernseys known, and was only too willing to loan his earliest Crawford jumper, being a woolen one from the 1994 season.
The other two Crawford guernseys to be seen in the tribute are, the jumper he wore when he lead the team to victory for the Night Premiership in 1999 over Port Adelaide and the other, from his last season in 2008 - the guernsey he wore in his 300th AFL match.
A must see highlight for Crawford fans is a copy of the special tribute book published by the Club and presented to him in acknowledgement of his 300th game. Teammates, coaches, trainers and close friends were invited to write their thoughts and memories of Crawford’s stellar career.
The Shane Crawford tribute cabinet at the Hawks Museum.
Tony Dagostino with part of his Crawford collection.Read other stories from the Hawks Museum.
