By sports editor Russell Bennett
Peter Crimmins never won a Hawthorn senior best and fairest award, and yet there are no figures more revered throughout Hawks history – just ask three of the greatest of all-time, Leigh Matthews, Peter Hudson, and Longwarry’s own Peter Knights.
In a decade at the Hawks, across a career spanning 176 games, Crimmins forged a legacy that went far beyond the field.
His is one of ferocity at the contest, but warmth and kindness of spirit off the field; one of committed leadership, and one of dignity.
His was a light that shone incredibly bright over just 28 years, and his wife, Gwen, and Knights himself are two of the keepers of that flame.
For his new book ‘Crimmo’, renowned Gippsland author Dan Eddy spoke at length with the likes of Matthews and Knights, and of course Peter Crimmins’ family.
But this was about more than finding out just what made the former Hawthorn captain and premiership player tick.
This was about truly understanding him – where he’d been, who he’d touched, and just how he’d influenced countless lives.
For three years, the Leongatha-based Eddy lived and breathed Crimmo’s story – walking the same paths, visiting the same places, and forming bonds with the same people to get a true understanding of the man whose life was cut so tragically short by testicular cancer in 1976.
Eddy is a dyed-in-the-wool Essendon tragic, and always has been.
And yet it’s his book on a Hawthorn immortal that he counts as one of his greatest accomplishments.
And it’s clear to see why.
From cover to cover, ‘Crimmo’ takes a magnifying glass and forensically examines Peter Crimmins’ life from all angles.
It goes far beyond the numbers – far beyond the 176 games and 231 goals in the famous Hawthorn colours.
“Gwen and Peter (Knights) want people to know all about Crimmo, because if you truly understand the role he had in so many people’s lives, you may just gain some real inspiration of your own,” Eddy explained.
“His spirit, his energy, his enthusiasm, his outlook – it resonated with people decades ago, and it still does to this day.
“Knightsy and Gwen are very big on making sure people remember that, and I’m sure that was a huge motivation for Gwen to have this story told.”
Eddy dedicated three years of his life to what is one of the great biographies in Australian sport.
“Because it was still such a sensitive subject with a lot of people, it was hard to bring it to life in a way that no one had understood it before, and provide as many perspectives as possible of all the key moments and events that went on,” he said.
“We look at Peter in a completely different light.”
And that light includes everything from the incredible highs, to the gut-wrenching lows.
Widely-acclaimed as the most courageous player of his time, it was off the field that Crimmins faced his biggest battle – one that took his life just days after his Hawks famously won the 1976 grand final.
Crimmins was appointed captain for 1974 and played right throughout the season but missed the finals due to surgery to remove a cancerous testicle.
He returned the following year, only for his cancer battle to again force him to step away.
His push to return late in time for the ’75 grand final is the stuff of legend – as was Hawthorn’s heartbreaking decision to overlook him for the match, which to this day remains the most controversial selection call in footy history.
Crimmins’ health continued to worsen throughout 1976, but in trademark style, he fought right to the end.
Clive Mackinnon took one of Australian sport’s most famous photos in the hours after the 1976 grand final, when a group of Crimmins’ team mates – including Knights – took the premiership cup to him to celebrate. His life was slipping away, and yet he was just as jubilant in his club’s victory as Knights and the rest of the players who took to the field.
Days later, he died at just 28 – leaving behind Gwen (then 31), and sons Ben and Sam.
And Eddy’s book details all of it.
“It’s a credit to the person Peter Crimmins was that so many people from so many different walks of life wanted to contribute, just because they still felt so invested in his life and his story,” Eddy said.
Knights, and Drouin favourite son and fellow multiple premiership-winning former Hawk Leon Rice were two such contributors.
The process for the book first started in 2017, when Eddy had started to work on a biography of another Hawks legend, Peter Hudson.
But through meeting and talking with Gwen Crimmins, it became clear that a book exploring her husband’s life and his remarkable legacy just had to be written.
“I was doing a PhD on Alex Jesaulenko at the same time, so I had to juggle the two, and probably spent more time on Crimmo than I should have for my professor’s liking,” Eddy said with a laugh.
“You quite literally spend every waking minute with the subject on your mind.
“I really live their lives – I’m really invested in that sense – so probably even some of my sleeping hours were spent dreaming about him.
“Whether you’re going for a walk, or reading the newspaper, you’re still thinking about him – I really invest all of myself into a project like this, and there’s a sense of loss in a way when it is finished because you don’t have to think about him as much as you had.
“I really try and make the subject part of my own family. That’s why I try and understand the family, where they’ve come from and what they’re about, and how they’re hurting.”
Thankfully Eddy has his four-year-old son, Ernie, to keep him in check.
To say ‘Crimmo’ is a labour of love is one hell of an understatement.
Eddy has had a fascination with the story since he was 15.
“The 100 years of Australian Football documentary was aired and there was a segment on Crimmo and the Hawks during his era,” he explained.
“As a 15-year-old I was captivated by that, and really interested in him. Gwen was interviewed on that program, so I was just fascinated.”
After meeting Gwen in 2017 to get some insight on what truly made Hawthorn “the family club”, Eddy said he walked away with the realisation that Peter Crimmins’ story hadn’t been fully told yet, and he’d be honoured to be the one to do it.
“I think Gwen was at a point of her life, after a lot of struggles and challenges along the way, where she just wanted everything out there – all the stories told, all the bad stories, the funny ones, and everything in between,” he said.
“It was just like two people came together at the right time who were both in the position to make something happen. I was very fortunate that my publisher was eager for it as well, Geoff Slattery, so I was very lucky there and it just took off from there. From an innocent chat about the club more generally, the seeds were sown for what’s been one of my greatest achievements.
“Crimmo passed away in 1976, so it’s a couple of generations ago, and there are still so many people shedding tears over him when they talk about him, and there are still people who laugh uncontrollably about some of the things he’d do.
“There’s such emotion around him for so many reasons, and the more people started to open up to me, the more I fell in love with Peter’s story, and that of his family, and it really just took off from there. After that, it really did become an obsession.”
And after the likes of Matthews, Hudson, Knights, and Rice opened up to him so honestly about their great mate, it’s little wonder that Eddy has such a soft spot for that family club of theirs – even as a great Essendon man.
“By rights, if you’re just looking at stats, Leigh Matthews or Peter Knights you would think would have their names on Hawthorn’s best and fairest,” Eddy said.
“Crimmo never even won the best and fairest – he came second and third – but here you have the medal named after him. But as soon as you understand the spirit of the place and what makes it tick, then it’s clear to see. Knightsy still does tours to this day and he makes sure every new staff member or player who comes into the club understands the impact Peter Crimmins had at the time and just why he is so revered there.”
In many ways, it’s the house that Crimmo built.
‘Crimmo: The Peter Crimmins Story’ can be purchased online through daneddybooks.com, slatterymedia.com, hawksmerchandise.com.au and hardiegrant.com.
