Playing Career
Hailing from Cobram, Hocking was part of then Geelong coach John Devine's mass recruiting drive which also netted players such as Gavin Exell, Bruce Lindner, Dwayne Russell, Mark Bairstow and Anthony "Billy" Brownless in the mid-1980s.
Hocking represented Victoria on numerous occasions in the State of Origin series and played in four losing Grand Final sides (1989, 1992, 1994, 1995).
Hocking was considered unlucky not to win the Brownlow Medal, due to his many close finishes, finishing in the top four on many occasions. Hocking's consistency over a period was recognised by the club in 1995 when after former-captain Bairstow's departure at the end of 1994, Hocking was given the captaincy role for the 1995 season. However early in the season, he stated his intentions to give up the captaincy to concentrate purely on playing. The role would be shared between three players; Ken Hinkley, Barry Stoneham and Gary Ablett.
Hocking's tenacity, hardness, consistency and quality was rewarded in 2001 when he was named ruck-rover in Geelong's Team of the Century; a great honour given the fact there have been other quality ruck-rovers in Geelong's history.
In the late 1990s (1998) 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 retired at the end of the 2001 AFL season after playing 274 games, at the time the 3rd highest amount of games for Geelong (currently 5th). He was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame on 8 March 2008.
Read more about this topic: Garry Hocking
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