The curious case of Jack Scrimshaw
Injury? Poor form? Out of favour? We take a look at what is going on with Jack, and get an official statement from the club.
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“I just want to see us get back to where we belong as a footy club, I want to make sure that I’m putting in my best performance so we can get there as quick as possible.
“Personally I just want to be the best player that I can be - I feel like I’m 24 now and getting towards sort of peak prime stage in my life and in my career, and I think it is time for me to take another step and continue to improve.”
That was Jack Scrimshaw on 20 December 2022 as part of a wonderful club initiative; ‘I Spent A Day with AFL Elite Defender Jack Scrimshaw’.
You would have been hard pressed to find a Hawthorn supporter back then who would not have automatically picked Scrimshaw in their starting 18 for 2023.
And even now most fans would still comfortably say he is in the top group of players currently on our list – certainly still one of the first that should be picked each week.
So what on earth is going on?
Is it a case of being injured? We heard through the grapevine that he had an interrupted pre-season - though he was never mentioned during several pre-season training reports from High Performance Manager Peter Burge.
Ahead of our round five Gather Round clash against the Giants, Scrimshaw was ruled out during the week with what was listed as a hamstring injury.
He then returned to the team as the starting sub which was his role for both losses in rounds six and seven against the Crows and Dogs respectively.
Against the Crows he came on for Max Lynch in the second term and played a chunk of the game up forward – looking decent while registering a goal. He spent 71% of his time up forward, went at 86% disposal efficiency, and made a huge impact as the sub.
Against the Dogs he came on as a tactical substitution for Seamus Mitchell in the third quarter and still registered 10 touches, three marks and over 200 metres gained.
In the official injury report ahead of getting picked for the starting line-up for round eight against the Dockers, Hawthorn's Head of Football Rob McCartney had the following to say:
"After spending the last two weeks as our medical substitute, it's great to have Jack returning to the starting 22.
“Jack has had an interrupted season, most recently managing a turf toe injury, but he's a talented player and we're thrilled to have him back in our starting line-up."
It seems very very strange that a player is picked as a substitute if they are not 100% ready to play the whole game. We saw that against the Dogs that Jack had to play three quarters of footy, but similarly to the Callum Mills injury on the weekend – injuries can happen very early in games, and your sub needs to be ready to play a full game if required.
So Scrimma got the nod to play against the Dockers.
He finished the game — which was not a fun one to watch — with 16 touches, spent 67% of the game back in the defensive half but still managed to push forward and kick a goal. It prompted us in our match recap to label the outing as: “the continuation of a confusing season for our number 14”.
Just when it couldn’t get any more confusing… Scrimshaw was omitted for the round nine game against the Demons last week.
Prompting the question to again be asked — not for the first time in this article — what on earth is going on?
We reached out to the club for an official comment on Jack and here’s the response we received:
“Injury interrupted Jack's preparation for the season which put him on the back foot from the get-go. A toe injury early into the season further hindered his fitness and that hasn't allowed the continuity that has been previously afforded to Jack in his time at Hawthorn.
”He is a player we rate highly and know has talent, but his form has been inconsistent likely due to those injury disruptions.
”We're hopeful his back half of the year sees him return to that form we're used to from Jack and we will see plenty more of him back in the senior side.”
A response and a quick one too — so kudos to the club for that. But an answer? Not really sure it answers anything.
It suggests he is out of the team based on form (which may be resulting from previous injuries), but surely that’s genuinely not the case. His form has not been that bad. Optically, he is well ahead of at least half a dozen players in the team in terms of output.
Is there something else happening we don’t know about? It is very easy to come up with a range of theories from training standards to following set rules / guidelines to general attitude. But surely that ain’t Jack.
His output in 2021 and 2022 in terms of disposals and marks was rated above average when benchmarked against the rest of the competition. At 24 years of age he seems a logical key component of our development and key member of our next premiership tilt / team and we need those numbers back shoring up our defensive line.
With the performances of our defence through the first nine matches of the season, I still think he should be an absolute lock to be playing in this line-up.
Fingers crossed there is actually nothing to see here, and normal Jack Scrimshaw service is resumed in the coming weeks.
The only injury I have heard associated with Jack is Turf toe.
Turf toe is sprain of the main joint of the big toe. If his Turf Toe is Grade 1 - which is the mildest form - he could play but would be on limited minutes and in a stiff soled boot.
He would also need be on a limited training program - which might limit his prep. The player himself may be putting his hand up to play but deemed not match fit.
Really unlikely "he is out of favor" or Mitchell has some "ego thing" going.
In our fan group, 'Line in the Sand' , we are asking the same question and it is pissing us off that the club does not respond. There is absolutely no doubt that Jack is amongst our ten best players leave alone our best 22....look at the poor form of CJ, Wingard, Morrison, Frost and the laughable inclusion of Kosi....come on Hawthorn give us a break. This will not end well if our uber talented and lifelong Hawk fan, Jack , is "seeking opportunities elsewhere' at seasons end.