One of our favourite players is finally making his return to Essendon VFL this week. We take a look back at how he has been spending his nine months out of the game.
The last time Heath Hocking played was in the elimination final against North Melbourne in 2014.
Since then, the veteran midfielder has undergone twin groin surgeries in an attempt to alleviate much of the discomfort that he played with throughout the season.
To keep himself active, Hocking signed himself up for Twitter as a way to both document his return to football as well as chat to fans.
We had a look at some of Buddha's tweets to see exactly what he has been up to and discovered some familar themes.
The break down (from what we saw):
Theme | Tweets | % |
Food | 23 | 33.8% |
Sport | 6 | 8.5% |
Essendon | 11 | 15.8% |
Self-Promotion | 4 | 5.8% |
Shameless Plug | 7 | 10.1% |
Other | 18 | 26% |
TOTAL | 69 | 100% |
Key Moments:
1. His first tweet
Ripping day here at TVSC, plenty of fans here to watch me do the grinder inside!! #bigpipes pic.twitter.com/6egmbtAgQw
— Heath hocking (@HeathHocking39) January 16, 2015
2. When he first met Adrian Richardson (better known as the tastysausage)
Great day at training today did my third run since groin surgery but more importantly got to met this legend @tastysausage ;) #lalunabistro
— Heath hocking (@HeathHocking39) January 23, 2015
3. That time he met his mate Tony.
Caught up with my good mate today to talk footy @EssendonFC #donthesash pic.twitter.com/7ignDXI4mt
— Heath hocking (@HeathHocking39) April 16, 2015
4. That time he wanted to become a Pokemon master
Think I found my calling after football, competitive Pokemon how good!! #gottocatchthemall
— Heath hocking (@HeathHocking39) April 21, 2015
5. That time he got excited about kitchen storage
Is it unmanly to have enjoyed a Tupperware party today!? #organizedkitchen
— Heath hocking (@HeathHocking39) May 23, 2015
6. That time he made bread
Love it when the Olive loaf rises high!!! @tastysausage pic.twitter.com/SmR443CE2P
— Heath hocking (@HeathHocking39) May 27, 2015
a lot of bread
Think I have a problem 3 different batches of rolls in 12 hours @tastysausage #36andcounting pic.twitter.com/qwhUCi8Mcz
— Heath hocking (@HeathHocking39) May 14, 2015
Spelt bread anyone!? pic.twitter.com/QgESo1lQsk
— Heath hocking (@HeathHocking39) April 28, 2015
7. That time he decided to go a month without coffee
Been a month without coffee/chocolate and soft drinks and not really craving it #canbedone
— Heath hocking (@HeathHocking39) May 31, 2015
8. His love for smoking meat
Not a bad way to spend a day off smoking beef ribs! Welcome Good tips#lowandslow pic.twitter.com/9Aw8tUXm3z
— Heath hocking (@HeathHocking39) January 22, 2015
20hr roast lamb for dinner #cantwait pic.twitter.com/RuyTDzpVnr
— Heath hocking (@HeathHocking39) March 26, 2015
Get a vb can up ya on Mother's Day, happy mothers to all those mothers out there. #beercanchicken pic.twitter.com/792vu0xv6R
— Heath hocking (@HeathHocking39) May 10, 2015
9. #Skinnies
Get down to @GTrailerPark they do some good burgers #skinfolds pic.twitter.com/uFhlcBnGaL
— Heath hocking (@HeathHocking39) February 7, 2015
Why do solid Easter eggs have to be out so early #finishedawhilebagX4 #skinnies
— Heath hocking (@HeathHocking39) January 31, 2015
Might need to run a few extra laps after this bad boy #skinfolds @oldmateeaseys pic.twitter.com/qwyDzAMA5G
— Heath hocking (@HeathHocking39) May 27, 2015
10. When he was funny (and probably right)
These guys played footy together as juniors. #fletchstillgoing #Fletch400 pic.twitter.com/JVjd1T867x
— Heath hocking (@HeathHocking39) May 30, 2015
But this was probably the best of them all.
Got back into training today for a few drills bring on the 27th #hesback @EssendonFC
— Heath hocking (@HeathHocking39) June 9, 2015