Paul Hawke is a former Australian rules football

Australian rules football

Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...

 player who played with the Sydney

Sydney Swans

The Sydney Swans Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The club, founded in 1874, was known as the South Melbourne Football Club until it relocated to Sydney in 1982 to become the Sydney...

 and Collingwood

Collingwood Football Club

The Collingwood Football Club, nicknamed The Magpies, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League...

 Football Clubs in the Australian Football League

Australian Football League

The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...

 (AFL).

A versatile ruck-rover from the Wagga Tigers, Hawke kicked 23 goals in his debut season at Sydney. He represented New South Wales at the 1988 Adelaide Bicentennial Carnival

1988 Adelaide Bicentennial Carnival

The 1988 Adelaide Bicentennial Carnival was the 22nd edition of the Australian National Football Carnival, an Australian rules football State of Origin competition. Australia was celebrating its Bicentenary in 1988 so the carnival was known as the 'Bicentennial Carnival'...

. Hawke played his best football after he crossed to Collingwood and in 1989 averaged 25.89 disposals a game, 41 of them in a win over Richmond. He finished equal seventh in the Brownlow Medal

Brownlow Medal

The Chas Brownlow Trophy, better known as the Brownlow Medal , is awarded to the "fairest and best" player in the Australian Football League during the regular season as determined by votes cast by the officiating field umpires after each game...

, the best placed Collingwood player, but was runner-up in the Copeland Trophy

Copeland Trophy

The E.W. Copeland Trophy is an Australian rules football award given by the Collingwood Football Club to the player adjudged Best and Fairest for Collingwood during the year....

. Collingwood broke through for a drought breaking premiership in 1990 but Hawke spent the entire season in the reserves. He returned to Sydney in 1991 but could only manage one appearance with the seniors.