DRAFTEE Marc Pittonet and Hawthorn couldn’t be a better fit.
A Club with a rich and proud history, Hawthorn’s core values stem from its focus on family and embracing everyone who comes into contact with it.
While everyone has their own unique families, Hawthorn Football Club and its players, coaches, staff, members and fans make up a broader family who support each other and strive for success and pride in the brown and gold.
Family values like respect, support, empathy live inside the four walls of Hawthorn and through those who bleed brown and gold.
The story is much the same for Pittonet.
It’s almost as if fate played a role in him being picked up by the Hawks and just 10 minutes after his name was called at selection 50 in Thursday night’s National Draft, you can see why.
To say Pittonet’s family is big is an understatement.
While the new Hawk is one of three kids, his extended family is just as close as it is big.
He has 33 first cousins in total – with each and every one close to one another.
So close, that within 10 minutes of becoming a Hawk, one of his cousins arrived at his doorstep in a Hawthorn guernsey.
“It was literally 10 minutes after the draft and he turned up in a brand new Hawthorn top he’d bought from Rebel Sport on the way to my house,” Pittonet told hawthornfc.com.au
But the support from his family didn’t end there.
All of a sudden, a mere 10 minutes after one cousin was at his house in a new Hawthorn guernsey, he had an influx on text messages from his cousins who are holidaying together in Bali.
“They sent me all these pictures, about 20 or 30 minutes after being drafted of them sitting on a beach in Bali dressed all in Hawthorn gear,” he said.
“When they found out they were just rapt because it’s just like moving from my big family with all my relatives to a football club that really embraces the same values.”
The lengths his family went to, to show their support though was no surprise.
“My family has always been really close. We’ve grown up having Christmas every year together and we see other on major holidays, making sure we’re all getting around each other,” Pittonet said.
“We’re all really supportive of each other.”
What was shocking was that the very same cousins decked out in brown and gold are die-hard Brisbane Lions supporters.
“I was in disbelief,” Pittonet said.
“It’s funny because they’re all Brisbane supporters, they’re die hard Brisbane supporters because my great grandfather used to play for Fitzroy.
“I never expected them to embrace another club.”
Hawthorn draftee Marc Pittonet (left) with cousin James in his brand new Hawthorn guernsey, purchased less than 10 minutes after Marc was picked up by the Hawks.
Photos sent by Pittonet's cousins from a beach in Bali! Cousin Daniel O'Kelly (left), Uncles Paul and Michael O'Kelly and cousin Riley O'Kelly (front) loving their new Hawks guernseys.
(Left) Pittonet's uncles Michael and Paul (left) take a selfie in Bali, then head back to the beach with Daniel and Riley (right).
