Crawford, a veteran of 305 games, called it quits after the upset 2008 grand final victory but his legacy lives on.
His greatest attribute in his latter days was rallying the Hawks when they were behind on the scoreboard.
And his absence has been noticeable in the opening losses to Geelong and the Swans, particularly in the third quarters when the opposition came at the Hawks hard.
It was during a similar [but far more inaccurate] phase of play in the second quarter of the 2008 grand final that Crawford shone while others around him were struggling.
His nine second-term possessions, mostly in a sweeping role in the besieged backline, went a long way to ensuring that the Hawks weren’t blown out of the water before half time.
But coach Alastair Clarkson says the club has not dwelt too much on the loss of Crawford.
“It is a pretty big legacy he has left at the club so it is hard to directly replace him,” Clarkson said.
“But we’ve got some young kids at the footy club who we think if they are given the chance can emerge into really good players in the future.”
And besides there was precious little time for sentiment in football.
“You move on pretty quickly and you don’t delve too much into the past in terms of what you’ve got missing or what you’ve got now,” Clarkson said. “So we’ve moved on.
“He has been a very decorated member of our side for a long time and will go down in history as one of our all-time champions but there comes a time when everyone must move on and that happened for Crawf.
“We haven’t addressed whether he has left too much of a vacuum or a hole at all, we are giving young blokes the opportunity to play.”
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
