Jesse Hogan could sit back and relish his maiden Coleman Medal, but the GWS star says he has bigger fish to fry with AFL finals just around the corner.
Slotting two more majors against the Western Bulldogs on the weekend, Hogan capped a career-best home-and-away season with 69 goals across 23 games to be the league’s leading goalkicker.
He ended Carlton’s three-year chokehold (Harry McKay, 2021; Charlie Curnow, 2022, 2023) on the award.
It is his first league-wide individual accolade since taking out the rising star award in 2015 at his first club Melbourne, taking full advantage of the career lifeline handed to him by the Giants in 2021 after two turbulent seasons at Fremantle.
He is the second GWS player to win the Coleman Medal – the first belonging to now-Geelong star Jeremy Cameron in 2019.
Hogan joked second-placed Cameron (58 goals) gave him a run for his money after kicking an equal career-best nine goals against West Coast last round.
“Watching ‘Jez’ kicks seven in a half and thinking, if there’s one bloke, who can kick 20 in a game it’d be ‘Jez’,” Hogan said on Monday.
“Yeah, the messages of support (about the Coleman Medal) have been fantastic, but there’s bigger fish to fry.
“It’s probably something more I’ll think about coming into the season, but it’s been a pretty unique journey.
“When I got to the Giants, I had a lot of issues with my body and just being able to play consecutive games.
“In 2022, we just planned to get 18, and I got 18, and I was absolutely over the moon with that.
“To be here, two years later and play 23 games and be sitting in this position, it’s not something I ever thought could happen…it was never really something that I was aiming for.”
GWS are set to face cross-town rivals and minor premiers Sydney in a qualifying final after being denied a top-two finish following a 37-point loss to the Bulldogs.
A win over the Swans won’t be easy to come by, with the Giants falling short in their two derby matches this season.
But GWS will have finals history to lean on, having defeated their rivals in all three post-season matches since first meeting in a qualifying final in 2016.
“They’ve been the team to beat all year, from round zero all the way through to round 24,” Hogan said.
“We’re in pretty good form. We had a loss yesterday but I feel as though it’s going to be really good match up.
“We would have loved the home final but to be playing the Swans in a derby in the first finals is really exciting.
“If it wasn’t going to be our home final, this is probably the second-best option.”
