With Ginnivan’s Collingwood exit, a new Hawthorn hire joins a select group.
After leaving the Magpies, the cunning tiny forward joins some other recognizable names.
After leaving Collingwood just a few weeks after celebrating the Magpies’ triumph, Jack Ginnivan now plays for Hawthorn, joining a select group of athletes who have switched teams in the off-season following their AFL debut.
Just 18 days after Collingwood’s exciting four-point victory over the Lions, in which the shrewd small forward had seven touches, four tackles, and three inside 50s, Ginnivan would make the shocking switch to Waverley.
The 20-year-old may have left the Magpies as a result of Collingwood signing Fremantle sniper Lachie Schultz days before the trade deadline, but
Ginnivan’s departure from the premiers made him the first player in four years to leave a team that won the grand final in the same season; the last AFL player to do so was Tiger-turned-Sun Brandon Ellis.
Ellis joined Gold Coast as a free agent after winning his second flag with Richmond and began a new beginning at Carrara after a fruitful eight-year run at Punt Road.
Ellis’ move came a year after champion Eagle Scott Lycett, a free agent, joined Port Adelaide after departing West Coast’s premiership team.
Between 2013 and 2016, Joel Hamling (the Western Bulldogs to Fremantle, 2016), Matthew Suckling (Hawthorn to the Western Bulldogs), and Lance Franklin (Hawthorn to Sydney, 2013) all left their respective teams shortly after winning a championship.
Des Headland left Brisbane at the conclusion of 2002 to join Fremantle, bringing the total number of players who have transferred clubs following a successful season to ten since the turn of the century.
Following the club’s first AFL championship in 2004, Josh Carr and Jarrad Schofield left Port Adelaide for Fremantle, while Geelong ruckman Steven King left the Cats after their streak-breaking grand final victory in 2007.
AFL legends Ron Barassi (Melbourne 1964), Norm Smith (Melbourne 1948), and Alex Jesaulenko (Carlton 1979) would also leave premiership-winning sides, according to AFL history and statistics specialist Col Hutchinson.
Following his departure from Melbourne, Barassi would go on to win two championships with Carlton as their coach, along with others who have since gone.
Mooney ended his career as a three-time premiership player after moving to Kardinia Park before of the 2000 season. He would play a part in Geelong’s 2007 and 2009 premierships.
Since Bomber-turned-Cat Tom Fitzmaurice in 1924, only Mooney has left a premiership team that same off-season and gone on to succeed elsewhere. Fitzmaurice won back-to-back premierships with Essendon before leaving, and in his first season with Geelong, he would win a third consecutive flag.
Despite the promising direction Hawthorn is anticipated to take in the upcoming years under senior coach Sam Mitchell, the trend doesn’t bode well for Ginnivan.
Ellis could attempt to break the slump given that Damien Hardwick, his own premiership guru, will be visiting Queensland.
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