What Clarko says
6. Josh Gibson
Today's feature is on Josh Gibson who will wear the number 6 guernsey again this season.
Josh is a very, very important member of our backline, he produced some really consistent and outstanding performances in season 2011. In his best season at the Club, he was runner-up in the Peter Crimmins Medal and received a nomination for the All-Australian team.
Our Club's backline hasn't been as settled as we would have liked and it probably hasn't been all that settled since the premature retirement of Trent Croad at the end of the 2009 season.
We recruited Josh into our footy club to more or less take the place of Croady. In his first season, Gibbo's progression was curtailed by a serious hamstring injury sustained in the round 3 match against the Western Bulldogs in 2010.
That impacted on his ability to be the player that could block oppostion forward entires like we'd hoped he would. A solid pre season leading into season 2011 enabled him to emerge as an integral member of our backline and also its ability to rebound from defence. It also meant that Gibbo had his best season of AFL football to date.
We marvel at his ability to compete against bigger and stronger opponents, he's such a tenacious fighter and we're really fortunate to have him in our backline. He's got a great competitive spirit, and that means that every opposition score we concede has been achieved the hard way because of that competitiveness.
It's a trait that we love in all our defenders but Gibbo probably demonstrates it better than anyone and we're hopeful that that's going to continue in season 2012. It will be assisted by the return of Ben Stratton and Stephen Gilham from injury and also hopefully the emergence of Jarrad Boumann, who's another tall defender that can give some assistance. So, for the first time in a few years our backline is looking like it can structure up quite strongly against some of the better forward setups in the competition and give us every chance of going deep into September.
I look forward to featuring guernsey number 5 tomorrow, Sam Mitchell who's a very, very highly decorated player at our footy Club.
Be sure to visit hawthornfc.com.au tomorrow when I go into much greater depth on Mitch's career.
Until then, bye for now.
What are your thoughts?
Leave your comments on Josh Gibson below with fellow Hawks fans. What impresses you most about Gibbo? How can he take the next step in 2012?
Read about more players from Clarko's Summer Series
