While the Cats finished above the Kangaroos at the end of the home-and-away season, Hawkins says the strength of this year’s top eight really hit home after Friday night’s six-point defeat at the MCG.
“Tonight just goes to show how good the competition is, you need to be at your best, we believe that when we’re at our best we can beat anyone, but tonight wasn’t our night,” Hawkins told Cats TV after Friday night's Semi Final.
“It’s very shattering for us at the moment and for coaches and staff but we’ve had a good year, we’ll take some positives out of the night.
“I think Josh Walker and Josh Caddy have been great the last couple of weeks, plus we’ve got games into young players, we’ve seen Lincoln McCarthy come into tonight; all in all it’s been a pretty positive year for the footy club.
“Tonight hurts and so it should but we’ve now got to look forward to 2015.”
Despite only playing five senior games this year, Josh Walker’s impact in both finals was enough to impress Geelong’s leading key forward.
Following his performance of three marks and one goal against the Hawks in the Qualifying Final, Walker returned to better his efforts with four marks and three goals, in yet another fierce contest against the Roos.
“Josh has played a really important role for us over the last couple of weeks so that’s very promising,” Hawkins explained.
“He’s got really good hands, he’s working on his game, he’s starting to kick a lot better at goal, so he was really good tonight.”
Click on the video above to hear more from Tom Hawkins after Friday night's disappointing defeat.
