A Hawthorn goal within the first twelve seconds of the match at Aurora Stadium on Sunday had local fans on their feet during the club’s annual Pink Ribbon Game.
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For Hobart’s Nicholas Geeves the match was one to remember, as a special guest who took to the field with his beloved team.
The nine-year-old had spent the past three and a half years undergoing treatment for leukemia.
“We’re three weeks off his chemotherapy now and this is just fabulous, it’s really something special for him and a bit of a celebration,” said his mother Tracey Geeves.
“He’s completely finished leukemia treatment now and he just has one more operation left to take out an infuser port.”
After watching the team warm up in the change rooms, Nicholas took the hand of his favourite player, Hawthorn skipper Luke Hodge, as the team ran through the banner coloured pink for the special game.
He was never without a doubt about who would win the match, predicting the result with accuracy,
“The Gold Coast Suns are going to be cold because they are from the Gold Coast,” Nicholas said.
Also without a doubt, a fourth premiership flag this year for Hawthorn.
“Well they’ve won a lot of trophies in a row,” he said.
The club supported Tasmanians affected by cancer, like the Geeves family, with the release of a special event Pink Guernsey.
Ten percent of proceeds from the sale of pink merchandise, including scarves, a beanie and a polar fleece throw, will be donated to Cancer Council Tasmania.
Mrs Geeves said the Cancer Council supported Nicholas the whole time he was going through treatment.
“We’ve been along to see shows, they took him to see the circus when he was really unwell, and did little things that brightened him up at home when he was sick,” Mrs Geeves said.
The Geeves family joined a crowd of 10,121 who braved Launceston’s wintery conditions wearing their brown and gold to see the Hawks take on the Gold Coast Suns.
Among the other spectators were Aleisha Bonney and Sam Jarman of Devonport, both unfazed about cheering on opposing teams.
A keen hawks fan, Ms Bonney said she didn’t know how she had ended up with a Suns supporter, it was “just the pick of the draw” but they were still excited about the game.
“We don’t come down as often as I’d like to but we get here when we can,” she said.
It was a football first for Mr Jarman, who was experiencing his first ever live match, but despite being a Tasmanian he is determined Gold Coast fan.
“My first son was born in the same year they started, so I jumped on the wagon when they started for him,” Mr Jarman said.
