Jack Ginnivan, a forward for Hawthorn, believes he is at last enjoying his football after leaving Collingwood after winning the 2023 flag. The Hawks star says he is enjoying the flexibility he has been given to play with, noting that it makes a pleasant change from the “very structured” system at his last AFL team.
Ginnivan made his debut in 2020 with the Magpies, where he scored 40 goals in just one season to propel his team from second last in the standings to the preliminary round. However, Ginnivan found it difficult to regain his previous level of play during Collingwood’s title run in 2023 and lost the team’s favor as Bobby Hill, a newcomer from GWS, was primarily chosen over him.
Although Ginnivan was included in the starting lineup for the grand final matchup with Brisbane the previous year, he saw very little action—just seven touches and no goals—during the match. However, Hill’s four-goal performance earned him the Norm Smith Medal for best on ground.
Following a turbulent final season at the Pies, Ginnivan agreed to sign with his childhood club, Hawthorn, in the next weeks. In the previous year, He made news for his attendance at the Mooney Valley races on grand final eve and received a two-match ban for using illegal drugs.
But the forward has returned to the form that made him one of the AFL’s top prospects since moving to Hawthorn during the off-season. Ginnivan is getting six more touches per game on average in 2024 than he did in the previous campaign, mostly because he is allowed to move up the field more frequently as a forward. And Ginnivan attributes the Hawks’ ethos for his professional comeback.
“Collingwood is a very structured system and it’s very hard to be a forward at Collingwood,” Ginnivan said on SEN on Monday. “Sometimes there were a few dark days where you’re wearing the invisible cloak.
“At Hawthorn, which has been so great for me, you’re allowed to be free and you can go and change over patterns and stuff — whereas at Collingwood you were stuck on one side and things like that. It’s been great to be able to roam free and be able to touch the ball more because I feel like when I touch the ball it can work really well for me.”
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