HAWTHORN’S JOSH Gibson knows a thing or two about the importance of matches between the Hawks and Essendon.
 
The experienced defender grew up barracking for the Hawks in a family that embraced the rivalry.
 
“It’s a rivalry (that’s) gone on for a long time, especially in my household growing up being a Hawthorn supporter,” Gibson said.
 
“Me and my mum barracked for Hawthorn, but my brother and my Dad were Essendon.
 
“Since being a young kid there’s always been the rivalry in the household, and now playing for Hawthorn it continues.”
 
A product of the 1980s, the 32-year-old grew up in the era that defined the fierce rivalry between the Hawks and Bombers.
 
It was a rivalry that began in ernest back in Round 2, 1965, when Hawthorn’s centre-half-back at the time Garry Young was seriously injured at Essendon.
 
Young suffered a ruptured liver and bowel, an injury that ended his nine-year, 108-game career and led to some frosty encounters between the sides in the years following.
 
Moments such as Dermott Brereton running through the Essendon huddle and Leigh Matthews snapping a point post – and obviously the clubs’ numerous grand final meetings in the 1980s – are still strong memories for fans of both clubs.
 
Gibson said there is an expectation that matches between the two sides are ferocious and hard fought, especially after four-point and two-point margins in their past two meetings.
 
“As you saw at the start of the year they always are tough games between the two clubs, as we know,” he said.
 
“We’ll be going out there to play the best we can and make sure we play that Hawks way and hopefully came back with the four points.”