Adelaide ready to spoil party

ADELAIDE Crows assistant coach James Podsiadly says his side will be out to crash old mate Tom Hawkins’s 200th game party at Simonds Stadium tonight.

The 2011 premiership player worked closely with the power forward across his 83 games at the Cattery, and got a first-hand view watching Hawkins become an AFL star.

“I was very fortunate to play with him, but also see him develop into one of the premier key forwards in the comp,” Podsiadly said.

“I saw that pretty closely and (have) maintained a pretty good friendship since I left, so to see him play 200 games is fantastic really.”

Podsiadly said criticism aimed at Hawkins early in his career was unfair with time the only thing holding back the gun junior.

“I think early days he was probably criticised a little bit, but I think that criticism was probably a little bit premature in terms of still being a young kid,” he recalled.

“Most young key position players take a little bit more time and Tommy was just one of those guys that early days was learning the ropes in a really tough position.

“Early days there was nothing that specifically stood out; he just needed time to develop as a key position player.

“But the thing is, he had Cameron Mooney there as a bit of a mentor, some really good coaches as well that probably fast-tracked his development.

But the former Cat said he wasn’t surprised to hear Hawkins doubted whether he’d reach the milestone.