Has the early criticism been warranted?
Why perspective is important when times are tough
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The first two rounds have been rough for Hawks fans, but if we've learned anything it's that patience, perspective and context is the key, writes DANNY PRINS.
Hawthorn’s disappointing start to the 2024 season has seen the club, and its coach Sam Mitchell, cop some deserved criticism from various sections of the AFL media.
The manner of Saturday afternoon’s defeat against the Demons saw the pressure on the club turned up a notch, with ‘friend’ of the Insiders Damien Barrett teeing off on the Hawks during the Sunday Footy Show:
“For the entirety of the second half they didn’t have May and Lever and the Hawks still only kicked five goals.”
Frequent track watcher David King did likewise through SEN on Monday morning and his ‘First Crack’ segment on Fox Footy.
“When you set up a game in the manner they did in that first quarter – 50 uncontested marks and basically kick the ball around and not even threaten to challenge the opposition in any meaningful way or play with any identity at all. I question is that the responsibility of the coach or the club to say ‘hang on, what are we doing here? We’ve got to get develop minutes into this players’. Every game and quarter is important.
“I look at it yesterday and think what did they learn from yesterday’s occasion? What did they learn from that game? Is the message just to those guys, ‘we can’t win playing our way so we have to play this false brand’ – that you are never going to replicate. It will never take you to the promise land.
“It was a waste of development minutes for a club that’s in a hurry, it doesn’t have time to waste like this. They’re not as inexperienced as other teams. There are like-types out there.”
Is there merit to Kingy’s “first crack”?
There wouldn’t be a Hawthorn person alive, be it a coach, player, employee, member or supporter that would be content with the level of performance of the team so far this season.
A poor initial pre-season display against the Western Bulldogs set the tone for a disappointing last month of football, with a four-goal loss to Essendon followed up by an abject display against Melbourne this past weekend.
The question Hawks fans should be asking right now is, are the Hawks as bad as Barrett, King and co. are insinuating? Are these just rapid reactions to a poor performance? Or is reality somewhere between the two?
Hawthorn is (very) early into the third year of a full list rebuild, and while opinions differ on the list management strategy, we’ve seen enough glimmers to see that the Hawks are building something pretty impressive, even if those glimmers are showing themselves less often or maybe not as bright as we might have hoped.
Some causes for optimism:
Fan favourite half forward Connor Macdonald has averaged 19.5 disposals this season, up 4 per game from his career average of 15.5 disposals. He has also attended a number of centre bounces
Exciting small forward Jack Ginnivan has shown more in his two games for Hawthorn than in the whole 2023 season for Collingwood. Ginnivan is up eight disposals a game in 2024, sitting at 17 disposals per game
The Wizard of Waverley Park, Nick Watson, has had seven shots a goal in his first two AFL games, now that the monkey is off his back, his accuracy will surely increase and Hawthorn’s forward line will be more potent
Those first goal feels hit different when you’re 0.6 going into it. The run and gun of Josh Weddle is back, but with more refinement. Weddle has averaged 20.5 disposals per game and has played a variety of roles. His game against the Demons landed him the Hawthorn fans MVP
There is a clear difference in output between 2023 and 2024 for Cam Mackenzie. The young midfielder is averaging 17.5 disposals a game, of which 9.5 of those are kicks, last year he averaged 13.3 disposals, and only 6.1 kicks. Mackenzie knows what his strengths are and is trying to use them more
Off-season recruit Massimo D’Ambrosio has been better than anyone could have expected, doubling his career disposal average by accumulating 26 disposals per game in his first two outings. His distribution by foot has been a welcome addition to a team which sorely needs it.
The on field shouldn’t be the area of concern, other than the obligatory emotional knee jerk reaction to a heavy loss. Possibly the biggest failing on Hawthorn’s part to this point is in their marketing.
Maybe there is a limit to ‘No Limits’?
The positivity and hype surrounding the club’s ‘No Limits’ tagline — in other words: the team not having a speed limit on how quickly they can challenge for finals — has clouded the perspective from fans and AFL media alike.
Fans buy into the optimism and become out of touch of reality. Reality is that premiership list building takes far longer than the couple of years the Hawks are into it.
Hawthorn apologist Kane Cornes said the following in defence of the Hawks current situation, when pressed by Barrett and Matthew Lloyd on his leniency towards Hawthorn over North Melbourne
“This is just where they’re (Hawthorn) at (Damo), this is an aggressive rebuild, they’re one year and two games into it.”
“How long have North Melbourne been rebuilding for? How long? We’re talking six-seven years.”
Cornes is right, and it is all a matter of expectation and perspective. Expectations that have been set, and perspective when viewing performances within the context of those expectations.
Hawthorn is in the early phase of a major project
This sort of Premiership-contending list build, much like the North East Link, doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t happen without speed bumps and pot holes along the journey.
Perspective is important, and understanding the nuance around a list build is essential. There is always a balance between development and performance, as explained by Head of Football Rob McCartney in his pre-season chat with Hawks Insiders. He said who stated the Hawks were a “work in progress” and trying to “transition from a development phase into something of a performance phase”.
This is a clear indication that Hawthorn are not the finished product, and should not be adjudicated as such. A full rebuild takes time, and it requires patience. Patience from those in the football program at Hawthorn, and patience from supporters who will constantly compare Hawthorn’s development, often to that of other clubs who are on different paths and at different points of their rebuild.
Take a deep breath and stay calm, Hawks fans. If the journey was easy, every club would be challenging for a Premiership right now.
Zooming out
If we take a look at Hawthorn’s list from a distance, we should come away with some perspective which just might settle some of those uneasy feelings.
Average age at Opening Round, 2024: 23.6 (17th oldest). Only North Melbourne (23.2) has a younger list
Average games: 58.2 (16th most experienced) only Fremantle (55.4) and North Melbourne (48) have less average games
Players with 100-plus games: 9 (only North Melbourne and Adelaide, with 8, have less)
Players with less than 50 games: 27 (only North Melbourne with 29, has more)
Players with finals experience: 13 (only North Melbourne, Adelaide, Gold Coast have less)
None of this is an excuse for poor performance, poor execution or a lack of effort. It should, however, provide perspective to help people come to terms with why Hawthorn wasn’t able to deliver the killer blow to Essendon when dominating portions of their Round 1 encounter; or those who see an abysmal performance instead of a quarter of failed execution of a different game plan in Round 2 against the Demons.
By all means be disappointed — in fact, we should be disappointed with the performances to date. We have a right to expect more than what we have seen so far, but at the same time remember the stage of the journey the Hawks are on.
While the season hasn’t started how we all hoped, there have been some exciting developments with individuals and within the playing list overall. And sometimes with young lists it really is two steps forward and one step back — but that is still progress.
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Listening to King this morning, his underlying point was that the tactic in the first quarter isn’t sustainable as the good sides have good key defenders eg. GWS, PA, Cats, Blues, Lions & even WCE which would mean that we’d be playing that way each week. Would supporters be happy to watch that each week; let alone would it be sustainable?
Even Ross Lyon has recognised the need to score closer to 100 points to be competitive.
It was an “experiment” that failed, but it was still a learning experience for a young group.
(BTW This experiment was no where near as bad as the one on Friday night playing Pedlar on Stewart.)
As to the other commentators, relative comparisons are irrelevant as each club is on their own trajectory & impacted by a range of factors eg. Draft concessions.
Yes, good perspective and all true...but if Geelong smash us the pressure will really be on.
For the record I think we will bounce back hard.