Hawks on the Slide: How Mitchell is making life hard for himself

[rpfc 28,433]

As we all love the slide down the ladder of the Hawks I thought it be good if we talk about the current mistakes that Sam “I’m too good to let one of the greatest coaches ever have a dignified exit” Mitchell is repeating. 

We all know how them pushing out Hodge and Lewis and co broke their culture (could have learnt something there Sam)…

And now they are doing the same with established senior players: 

https://www.afl.com.au/news/683923
 

Wingard on the table but he doesn’t want to be on the table… 

Mess.

When TMac and ANB were on the table last year, they were told they should move on and it wasn’t a surprise and they should try to control their own destiny. 

Nothing concrete materialised and you know the rest. 

But Hawthorn are shopping people that have not been brought on that journey; something tells me the results they will get owing me sane that we saw from TMac and ANB.

Discuss.

[Deestroy All 14,266]

I’ve been baffled by this [censored] since the succession presser looked like an ISIS hostage video. 
 

Blowing up the club for Sam Mitchell? Sorry, what has he done in coaching again?

Goodwin did his full apprenticeship under Roos as he lay the foundation. Was never a guaranteed success, but it was a well executed, professional plan. 
 

What sort of [censored] bizarro world am I living where the club who’s success and professionalism I’ve envied for years is a mess, while we’re the toast of the town. 

[John Crow Batty 8,863]

Starting to be a pattern in Mitchell’s behaviour of muscling out top dogs that might be in the way of his ambitions. First he went to West Coast and was a cause of Matt Priddus’s early retirement. Then pushing out Clarkson and now it appears he is pushing out a lot of senior players. Hard to know where this is going. He could end up another Mark Neeld or he has some grand master plan. Not making friends on his journey though. 

Edited October 11, 2021 by John Crow Batty

[La Dee-vina Comedia 16,755]

5 minutes ago, John Crow Batty said:

Starting to be a pattern in Mitchell’s behaviour of muscling out top dogs that might be in the way of his ambitions. First he went to West Coast and was a cause of Matt Priddus’s early retirement. Then pushing out Clarkson and now it appears he is pushing out a lot of senior players. Hard to know where this is going. He could end up another Mark Neeld or he has some grand master plan. Not making friends on his journey though. 

He learned it first hand when he was on the receiving end pushed out of the captaincy in favour of Luke Hodge.

[durango 2,007]

At the MFC PJ wanted Roos and Roos wanted a plan where the next coach was picked as an apprentice then when the handover was complete Goodwin/Dew had time with the players to create a good relationship for the future.

At Hawthorn Clarkson did not come up with the idea of handover but the board did because they felt the Clarkson had run his race and Sam Mitchell was the successor who was courted by Collingwood so they acted in haste. 

[daisycutter 29,616]

ah...........the family club 😰........cry me a river

[Cards13 9,117]

Ahhh life is great isn’t it! The fact it is Kennett running the show is even better. 

[Jibroni 5,003]

You get the feeling the empire Clarkson created is about to be dismantled, unless the media are just making up rubbish.

 

 

[dieter 3,325]

6 minutes ago, Cards13 said:

Ahhh life is great isn’t it! The fact it is Kennett running the show is even better. 

Yes, Kennett knows a lot about 'footy' - witness his move to demote Clarkson to Box Hill the year after they won the flag. Jeffie was also good at selling off infrastructure, which very surprisingly, got snapped up by his mates. Then again, that's what mates are for.

[DubDee 25,868]

Clarkson has certainly left the Hawks in an awful state. Very little youth coming through and the senior players are mostly ones that have been traded in, so they have no core leadership to bring them forward. if the rebuild started in 2018 they would be looking good now to bounce back.

I think Mitchell is doing the right thing to start a rebuild and you do need to be aggressive, but you have to know the marketplace.  there is no one is salary cap space.

I would not be surprised at all if Mitchell or O'Meara leave at the last minute and the hawks are paying a chunk of their salary next year.  they both came to the hawks for success and now they are looking at years of rebuilding with an untried and seemingly arrogant coach

[george_on_the_outer 7,591]

7 minutes ago, DubDee said:

I would not be surprised at all if Mitchell or O'Meara leave at the last minute and the hawks are paying a chunk of their salary next year.  they both came to the hawks for success and now they are looking at years of rebuilding with an untried and seemingly arrogant coach

Even better to watch will be if they don't leave or no-one takes them on. 

What will that do for them as players? 

What message will it send to other players?

What will younger Hawk players think at the moment....they want me to walk through brick walls, but then throw me out like I'm seeing done to others?

[La Dee-vina Comedia 16,755]

38 minutes ago, daisycutter said:

ah...........the family club 😰........cry me a river

“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” - Leo Tolstoy

[binman 42,972]

I can't see behind the paywall so not sure who the list manager they are referring to is.

For their sake is i hope it s Gary Buckanara (didn't he put their premiership list together?)

For the rest of us i hope it isn't

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/overdue-rebuild-has-hawks-up-to-eight-years-from-flag-says-former-list-boss-20211011-p58yvn.html

[John Crow Batty 8,863]

2 minutes ago, binman said:

I can't see behind the paywall so not sure who the list manager they are referring to is.

For their sake is i hope it s Gary Buckanara (didn't he put their premiership list together?)

For the rest of us i hope it isn't

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/overdue-rebuild-has-hawks-up-to-eight-years-from-flag-says-former-list-boss-20211011-p58yvn.html

It’s Chris Pelchen who worked at the Hawks in 00’s. Says they should have started the rebuild 4 season ago. 

[The heart beats true 18,123]

Wingard and Omeara are B graders. Can be good in the right mix, but are not in the top 100 in the league.

Mitchell is an extractor with a great work ethic but needs to be surrounded by pace, or else any midfield would be far too slow.

None of them are young enough to be of value to invest in. You can try and shop them around, but the market is clearly soft, and even softer for these particular players. You’d only take them if you got them for nothing - which is guaranteed to annoy the faithful. So they’ll stay and feel very let down.

It’s a no win, all lose situation - unless your a vindictive supporter from another club. 🥳

[Fat Tony 5,231]

The Norm Smith Curse is over.

The Clarkson Curse has begun. 

Long live the Clarkson Curse!

[Sir Why You Little 37,038]

I wouldn’t blame Mitchell for all this. The Rebuild at Whorethorn should have started 4-5 years ago. 
They have left it way too late. 
Mitchell knows his job is dead unless he can draft in a heap of new blood 

[Little Goffy 14,546]

Starting to look like they might even be doing it -worse- than the Demon's first rebuild 2007-11.

Wingard, Mitchell and O'Meara are only in the 27-28 years range. They have a dozen other players older than that and many of them are also important to the team.

It is a big risk to be trying to dispose of your remaining mature players when you are already about to lose a host of them naturally. But I guess that works both ways - if they don't hit the panic button and get whatever draft selections and young players they can, they will be in all sorts of trouble anyway.

Looks to me like the only part of the ground they have reasonable prospects in from the younger players is defence. That's important (As we so happily know - Oh hey, did you hear we won the premiership? Yeah, we did that) but damn they look threadbare everywhere else.

They've got just 80 games total into every player they have 21yrs or under (Demons: 220!) and that's a fair reflection of what's available in that group.

I've looked at it and talked myself in a circle but the conclusion is; I cannot see a way Hawthorn can avoid a really awful and sustained slump.

YAAAAAAAY! WOOOO HOOO!

[Wrecker46 2,982]

It's great to watch Hawthorn, Collingwood and Geelong blowing themselves up.

 

[Mazer Rackham 14,971]

Oh, hell. What a blow. Such a nice club too. The family club!

 

2 hours ago, John Crow Batty said:

He could end up another Mark Neeld 

I was wondering how this post season could get any better. Thank you!

 

15 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

I wouldn’t blame Mitchell for all this.

But you won't be upset if the rest of us do? Like, don't spoil the fun.

[Cards13 9,117]

1 hour ago, binman said:

I can't see behind the paywall so not sure who the list manager they are referring to is.

For their sake is i hope it s Gary Buckanara (didn't he put their premiership list together?)

For the rest of us i hope it isn't

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/overdue-rebuild-has-hawks-up-to-eight-years-from-flag-says-former-list-boss-20211011-p58yvn.html

In private browsing or incognito mode works for like 3 articles at a time, [censored] down the browser and then You get 3 more, so I’ve heard…

[TeamPlayedFine39 8,508]

Mitchell is attempting to do what Clarkson did when he took over; trading senior players for high picks.
Problem is that, unlike last time, the market values early picks a lot higher than it did 04 and 05. 

There's either a lot of Clarkson or a lot of Neeld about what he's doing...

 

[Elwood 3184 1,301]

And now a challenge to J G Kennett. Grab the popcorn, sit back and enjoy.

[John Demonic 5,796]

Whothorn?

[Jibroni 5,003]

2 hours ago, Fat Tony said:

The Norm Smith Curse is over.

The Clarkson Curse has begun. 

Long live the Clarkson Curse!

 

The Bambino curse would be even better :)