A greater man than I once said that there are lies, damned lies and statistics; by any credible measure we were by far the younger and more inexperienced on Saturday last.
Our avereage games played was 70.3 and Hawthorn's was 67. The three most experienced players on the ground and accounted for 636 of our total of 1547 games. By contrast Hawthorn's three most experienced players accounted for only 481 of their 1473 total. Hawthorn's most experienced player would have stumped quite a few people; Guerra at 175. He was followed by Mitchell on 155 and then Hodge on 151. We had Junior on 235, Bruce on 203 and Green on 198.
If you drop the three highest and the three lowest totals, you get a much better representation of the situation; Hawthorn's mean becomes 62 and ours 57, much younger. I could wax lyrical with a great many more statistical measures that all show much the same thing.
The average age will follow the same path; the three oldest players on the ground were, of course, Junior, Bruce and Green. By some way as well, Junior and Brice were the only players over 30, with Green on 29. Hawthorn's oldest player, another who would have tricked a few people, Osborne at 27.7.