Kicking the ball off the ground

I noticed early in the year the Hawthorn appeared to be under instruction to kick the ball off the ground to clear a pack. At the half way mark they are still doing it and often one of their players will run forward of the ball and guess what the ball pops out and they run on to it. Against us in the wet I thought they were lucky and Mitchell kicked a wild one which went to Breust who goaled. Well he did it again yesterday against Gold Coast and it is a trend that they kick off the ground or even punch the ball forward for their swarm to run onto it. I am surprised that no one else appears to have cottoned on and still, us included, try to handball our way out of heavy traffic. Do the Hawks train for this? I don't know. Is it another Clarkson innovation? Maybe. They certainly don't bomb the ball into the forward line like we do and the Kangas did last week in Adelaide. The only time it didn't work for Mitchell, who does it, most was when he kicked in danger against Ablett. Has our football dept noticed? Any thoughts???