Why is garry hocking called buddha

At the end of the season, Garry Hocking took over as senior coach of West Australian football's youngest league side, Peel Thunder, where he was confronted by arguably the greatest challenge of his career so far in endeavouring to transform the perennial easybeats into a competitive combination. However, his two season stint yielded consecutive wooden spoons and no measurable improvement in the team's displays, and once the season was over he was replaced as coach by Chris Waterman.

He was caretaker coach for the Power for the last four rounds of the after Matthew Primus lost the role and remained as an assistant when Ken Hinkley took on the job at the beginning of Most people say that something was Gary Ablett. Buddha says, no. I ask him if he attended the meeting of Geelong players at which it was decided to take out Dermott Brereton. Yes, he did. Brereton had been coming off the line at centre bounces.

Some of the players he collected were knocked out, no less than Brent Staker was earlier this year by Sydney's Barry Hall. Brereton, says Buddha, was "a very intimidating figure in those days". Geelong centreman Paul Couch had won the Brownlow Medal in Geelong thought Brereton would target him.

They didn't give him the chance, Mark Yeates collected Dermie at the first bounce just as he was beginning his charge. Legend has it that Brereton pissed blood at half-time, yet played on, kicking three goals. When he went back to kick the first of these after having been held by trainers while he vomited, Buddha thought, "If he gets this, we're in trouble". Because you don't get to see an effort of that magnitude very often on the football field, despite it being a place where physical courage is the norm.

Hawthorn won. They were six points ahead with Geelong closing at a gallop when the final siren sounded. A number of debates have followed the '89 grand final down the years. One is whether Geelong lost it because it played the man too early and started too late to play the ball. Buddha mentions this idea a couple of times, like he's still thinking about it. Buddha, now 39, coaches the Geelong Falcons. He'd like to coach in the AFL. Start him talking footy and you can't stop him. The passion is as pure as it was when he and Barnesie did a paper round together and people in Cobram knew the paper had been delivered because they heard a football bouncing up the drive.

It's usually said of the '89 grand final that, had it been a draw, Geelong would have won the replay because Hawthorn had more men in hospital. For in the middle of what might fairly be called a battle, an individual took the game to another level. His name was Gary Ablett. He remains as elusive to the general public now as he was then, but Buddha liked him.

He had his own ideas and opinions but I thought he was a terrific bloke. Strong and hard and skilful. Talking about Gazza, Buddha becomes animated. His eyes light up as he explains what it was like to play in the Geelong midfield on the days when "Gazza was on fire and kicking the ball over the grandstand". Buddha's other nomination for football immortality from the '89 grand final is Robert "Dipper" DiPierdomenico.

Ablett had bulk, strength and was as quick as anyone in the game. He collected Dipper from behind, breaking several ribs. Dipper played on. In the wild first quarter, Hawthorn rover John Platten, a Brownlow medallist, was knocked out and took no further part in the game.

When that story is told, it is usually said that Platten was knocked out by Buddha Hocking. Buddha's version of that incident is: "We both went hard for the footy. In the late s Hocking was part of a promotion with cat-food company Whiskas, where for a short period of time he changed his name by deed-poll to "Whiskas". He announced this on The Footy Show. This was to help lessen the financial burden that the Geelong Football Club was facing at the time.

Hocking represented Victoria on numerous occasions in the State of Origin series and played in four losing Grand Final sides , , , For a brief period in , he was known as Whiskas in a deal with the cat-food manufacturer.

Garry Hocking Player. Physical Status Height 1. In , Hocking was the coach for the Geelong Falcons Under 18s side. Garry Hocking fans also viewed:. George Harmonica Smith. Curtis Joseph. Lenny Wilkens. Ray Renfro. Edmund Nelson.