To me, a measure of a player’s success is being part of a successful side. If you look at Jonathan Brown, he’s played in three premierships – that's a successful player.
Individual glory can only take you so far. But, the thing I think Buddy has going for him is he actually wants to win. But for him to be known as one of the greats, he has to win a premiership with Hawthorn.
Also being debated is whether he will reach the 100 goal milestone this year. We don’t really want that to happen and I don’t think it will.
We’ve got other good forwards like Jarryd Roughead, Mark Williams and Tim Boyle. It’s important to spread the load around a little bit. It doesn’t matter what individual kicks the goals, because at the end of the day they all go on the team sheet.
As for the attention he’s getting, it’s not hard to keep his feet on the ground. He’s a pretty down to earth kid.
The great thing about the group of players we’ve brought through at the moment like Jarryd Roughead, Tim Boyle and Mitch Thorpe is they’re all around the same age so they keep each other pretty grounded which is a good thing from our point of view.
Buddy’s performances don’t ensure that he escapes criticism in team meetings either.
Our guys are very up front and honest with the feedback they give and they felt there were a few opportunities when Buddy could have handballed at the weekend. Jarryd Roughead and Mark Williams are particularly vocal in those meetings.
The good sides have players that share the ball around. That was one of the greatest things about Jason Dunstall. He was a noted goal kicker but he set up a lot of goals also and that’s something we’re trying to do at the Hawks.
The more we share the ball around, the more your teammates get rewarded and the more you bond as a group.
Last week Alastair Clarkson and Shane Crawford said that the game against Brisbane would be a really good test of where we are as a club.
It was a hard- fought encounter and a top quality match. I must say when I watched the replay I had much more appreciation of how hard it was.
Brisbane is a great side. They’ll make the eight and be pushing for top six or top four. So for us to go up there and beat them was an outstanding effort.
The thing I like about our playing group at the moment is that we expect to win every week now. We probably couldn’t say that two years ago or maybe even 18 months ago.
Even in the coaches’ box, we don’t get too nervous if we go behind. We have faith that eventually the wheel will turn and that’s a sign of a side on the improve.
As for the fact that we’ve been labeled as the main challenger to the Cats, I think that there’s a lot of good sides out there.
Sydney is probably playing some of the best football I’ve seen them play in quite a long time. Even though they lost to Geelong they played really well. St. Kilda are there abouts so there are a lot of teams that are going to challenge.
Hopefully we are one of those sides that can take on Geelong and win, but for now we’re just focusing on the week ahead and playing against Richmond.
As for the Cats, we’ll have to wait until round 17 to see how that one pans out.
