From the 2018 finals, the past 5-6 years rebuild has been built on the combination on many things 

Development from the existing core group & youth:  Sicily Worpel Impey Nash Moore Hardwick Morrison Lewis*

wiser heads to guide: Gunston Breust

early draft picks: Ward Watson. Weddle  Macdonald Day*Mckenzie* 

smart recruiting from other clubs: Frost  Chol Scrimshaw Meek Amon Ginnuvan D’Ambrosio  

smart mature bodies:  Newcombe  

Father sons:   McGuinness. Dear.  

NGA zoning Jiath* 

———————————————-

* didn’t play last night … Day, McKenzie , Jiath and Lewis to add to that team that smashed the bulldogs 

also have Seamus Mitchell, Butler, Grainger-Baras and Ryan as other youngsters who had excellent years at box hill and could come in. 
 

though it’s probably also due to Sam Mitchell drive and smart footy IQ and connection.  Let them play attitude!! 

Edited September 6, 2024Sep 6 by spirit of norm smith
B

Mostly B graders playing above themselves

2 minutes ago, adonski said:

Mostly B graders playing above themselves

… or playing exciting disciplined team oriented footy perhaps?

Just now, monoccular said:

… or playing exciting disciplined team oriented footy perhaps?

Yes that's what I said

7 minutes ago, adonski said:

Mostly B graders playing above themselves

Agreed. Sometimes the B-graders revert back to their level. Sometimes we find out they actually are A-graders. The Hawks are flying right now, we will get a better handle on the players and the team overall next season I suspect.

Edited September 7, 2024Sep 7 by No. 31

Been doing it since the 70’s…

They looked very competent, aggressive, team oriented, brash, tough ish and talented SONS. Their rebuild has taken a bit of time but the payoff is coming, I’m not fond of Mitchell but they looked the goods last night. Bevo made the mistake of leaving Sicily off the leash, he carved them up.

4 minutes ago, monoccular said:

… or playing exciting disciplined team oriented footy perhaps?

Yeah it’s all about the coaching and development I think. The players they brought in last year are all playing their role very well. But mostly they only ended up at the Hawks because nobody else really wanted them. They missed out on all the bigger trades they tried to get done over the last 2/3 year. 
 

i know there's a lot of comparisons to us in 2018 but the Hawks are much more skilled than us. 

the old Hawks hatred than has laid dormant for a while is back with a vengeance. I can't handle the thoughts of another period of the Hawks challenging. It's too depressing.

I'm putting this thread on ignore

16 minutes ago, adonski said:

Mostly B graders playing above themselves

Give me a team full of B-graders giving their best over a team with a couple of A-graders and mostly C or D-graders anyday.

Their disposal, particularly by foot, is exceptional.

The complete opposite of bulldogs

They could very well win the flag this year

Mitchell is the ace in the pack. He’s going to win multiple flags as coach and the Hawks knew this when they got rid of Clarko.

and have developed the art of 'handballing' backwards over their head

They are a strong group of players, playing a very team oriented style and they show great discipline, which has surprised me given their captain has previously been one of the most undisciplined players in the competition. Credit to Mitchell and his coaching team, as well as the recruiting and list management group.  They have done an exceptional job. With Day to hopefully return for them, they are a real chance of winning the whole thing.

Great admiration for the way young Dear approaches the ball in the air.  Those sorts of players are hard to find. Lucky we have one in JVR. 

49 minutes ago, spirit of norm smith said:

 

though it’s probably also due to Sam Mitchell drive and smart footy IQ and connection.  Let them play attitude!! 

This ^^^

Can't believe they will add Barrass and Battle this off season...we should have got Battle dammit!

10 minutes ago, Fritta and Turner said:

and have developed the art of 'handballing' backwards over their head

Actually Cats and Hawks are the masters of the NRL pass.  Clearly throwing the footy but not getting caught.  Libba did it once last night and somehow was called for throwing the ball. He might have said something but remembered the dissent rules!!!

Hmmm, if our 11 wins this season is equivalent to their 11 wins in 2019, after they went out in straight sets in two finals series (with a non-finals year in between), then I take it that everyone being impressed by how quickly Hawthorn have rebuilt will be satisfied with seven wins and a bottom four finish every year until 2029ish.

I don't mean to take away from the Hawks' achievement - going into this season, and certainly by round 5, it looked like Hawthorn were just going to sit at the bottom for the forseeable future.

Personally, if I were looking to steal one feature from the Hawks' operation it would be their conditioning of mature players - all but one (Wingard) of their players 26 and older have played a full or close to full season.

It speaks volumes about not only conditioning and luck, but also the commitment to slicing away the less-than-excellent mature players (I'm trying not to say list cloggers) and giving the club permission to have flaws while it gave kids a run.

The contrast of course is with Billlings, McAdam, Hunter, Smith and Schache, who were acquired or retained in the hope that they would provide immediate 'adequate' cover, where bringing in another late draft pick could only offer the possibility of being good in a few years. Of course, prior to that the strategy was a key part of winning a premiership because it took us to having a complete team.

We also haven't sacrificed a huge amount of draft value to do this, but at this stage I'm sure there would be general agreement that it would be nice to have, say five more kids running around of which even one or two might develop into quality players, than the list space being filled the way it is.

Anyway, to return to my starting point - the Hawks 'amazing' list rebuild is literally the worst-case scenario for our own future, so I'm glad to hear so many people enthusiastic about going through that and not grinding axes at the club along the way!

I posted some my thoughts on them in the finals thread which is mostly that they’re super fit, super organised and crack in hard. Skilled but not afraid to play contested footy.

Especially with Day out their midfield has a big defensive tilt with Worpel, Nash and Ward all defensively focussed.

Because they aren’t afraid to spread the ground they can use wings and flankers to do most of their ball movement.

They have good kicks but they’re so rarely trying any high risk stuff, the speed of ball movement and running creates easy options and they take them. 

Aside from getting fit and training up ball movement patterns I think our list focus has to be on finding guys who run to receive and are confident kicking on the run. 

You could see the impact Langdon has on our side and hopefully Windsor (and Judd, Nibbler, others) and how we need that by in from 22.

I think their main asset last night was the pressure they applied which had many normally composed Bulldogs players including the Bont fumbling and making bad decisions.

Compare and contrast to the way we played against the Bulldogs in Round 21. Had we been capable of doing the same thing in the last month or so of the home and away season, we would be playing finals this weekend.

11 minutes ago, Whispering_Jack said:

I think their main asset last night was the pressure they applied which had many normally composed Bulldogs players including the Bont fumbling and making bad decisions.

Compare and contrast to the way we played against the Bulldogs in Round 21. Had we been capable of doing the same thing in the last month or so of the home and away season, we would be playing finals this weekend.

Dees were guarding grass and hoped their zone would cause turnovers.  Hawks applied pressure to the man at the contest and tackled to cause turnovers.  Simple game footy.  Wish Goody sat next to me so I could point it out.  The zone defence style is dead.  Watch the Freo games x2!!!! 

1 hour ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Libba did it once last night and somehow was called for throwing the ball. He might have said something but remembered the dissent rules!!!

The dissent rule that has been applied maybe one or twice this season??

Is the rebuild too good?  North Melbourne is on the bottom picking up a lot very high draft picks and will probably end up with a better list 

Edited September 7, 2024Sep 7 by greenwaves

Something very Melbourne 1987 about them. Would not be surprised if they make the Grand Final

 

The MFC must recruit speed into the game plan. 
The Hawks are playing with run and dare