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We’re just hours away from Hawthorn’s first game of the 2024 season. And while our clash against the Bombers is certainly not season defining – it could set the tone for a year in which we have no limits, and no real expectations either.
At our first ever Hawks Insiders live panel show on Wednesday night, most had us finishing around the 16th mark, not too far off the seven wins we amassed in 2023. There were times during the pre-season where we felt a top 10 finish wasn’t beyond the realms of possibilities, but a horror run of injuries — from Will Day to CJ, James Blanck to DGB — coupled with a back-to-back mauling by the Dogs brought us all down to earth.
Is another bottom four finish considered progress? Well, that depends on whether that’s measured for you in wins, or in the development of a core nucleus of players that will likely be part of our next Premiership tilt. The practice matches against the Dogs were painful, but there were glimpses from Jack Ginnivan, Jai Newcombe, Connor MacDonald, Cam Mackenzie, Josh Weddle, Josh Ward, Henry Hustwaite, and even our newest recruit Nick Watson.
Speaking to HI on the eve of the 2024 season, Hawthorn development coach Andy Collins – aka the most positive man in the world – says the emerging talent on our list is reason enough to be optimistic.
“We've got some exciting talent – really exciting talent – with very unique athletic profiles. That's a real credit to the coaches, but the older players in particular are setting a really good environment for that too.
“So if you think about Weddle – I mean, how excited are you about Weddle? And you would’ve seen [Cam] Mackenzie do some amazing things [in the practice match]. Josh Ward and Connor MacDonald have already done some exciting things in their first two years. So I'm really optimistic.”
The challenge, Collins says, is in getting “these young boys all performing at the same time, at a really high level”, which could explain the inconsistency of performances in 2023, or the manner in which we struggled to stop the rot when teams got a run on. But Collins expects things to even out as the list matures and “builds more resilience around it”.
Hawthorn will enter the 2024 season with the second youngest team in the competition (behind North Melbourne), giving up just over 17 games to a Bombers outfit that just added 315-game veteran Todd Goldstein.
The Bombers are gettable and they’d be feeling the pressure, especially in a game that celebrates their 1984 redemption flag against — who else but Hawthorn. Lose to them, and it’ll sting much worse than an Irving Mosquito. Win and it’d be the dopamine hit we need to start off the year.
But it’d be wise not to get carried away either.
Despite Sam Mitchell’s claim that, after two years of building foundations, this Hawks team are turning the dial up towards “some better performances”, this team is still very much a work in progress. And even the most optimistic guy in footy knows that.
“We're going to ride the journey as Hawthorn people,” Collins says. “We’re going to see times the team excels but we’re going to see individual performances, like Jai Newcombe’s in that practice game, where you go, ‘That’s a bloody good player that we have.’”
In other words: there’ll be games where it all comes together, and dismal games where some magic from the Wiz, or a touch of class from Cam Mackenzie, will be enough to make it all worthwhile.
Look for those silver linings in 2024 and you won’t be disappointed.
‘Carn the mighty Hawks.
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Thanks for this! I'm surrounded by black and red on the train and feel very nervous 🤎💛