Another AFL season is over and once again Hawthorn proved to be the team to beat, becoming the first club since the Brisbane Lions in 2001-03 to complete a premiership hat-trick.
The Hawks made a mockery of what was supposed to be a close grand final, defeating the West Coast Eagles by 46 points to cement their status as the most dominant team of the 21st century, if you also include their 2008 premiership.
Further, they also became the most dominant team since the VFL became the AFL in 1990, if you count their 1991 premiership which was also won against the Eagles by 53 points.
And by winning this year’s flag, six current Hawthorn players became four-time premiership-winning players: Sam Mitchell, Jarryd Roughead, Jordan Lewis, Grant Birchall, Luke Hodge and Cyril Rioli.
They join Josh Gibson, Shaun Burgoyne, Bradley Hill, Isaac Smith, Brian Lake, Jack Gunston, David Hale, Luke Breust, Ben Stratton, Liam Shiels and Paul Puopolo as among those who played in each of the club’s hat-trick of flags.
Burgoyne also became a four-time premiership player in his own right; other than featuring in each of the Hawks’ last three premiership flags, he also featured in the Port Adelaide side that won its sole flag in 2004.
The Eagles, written off by so many at the start of the season, were looking to continue their remarkable rags-to-riches rise under second-year coach Adam Simpson.
From the side that took the field, only three players had previously played in a premiership-winning team, with Sam Butler their only remaining survivor from the 2006 premiership which was won against the Sydney Swans by just one point.
The club had finished ninth last season and failed to defeat any sides that finished above them on the ladder, and after losing reigning club champion Eric Mackenzie and Mitch Brown to season-ending knee injuries early on, they were given next to no hope of reaching the finals this year, let alone reaching the grand final.
But on the back of regular dominant performances from last year’s Brownlow Medallist, Matt Priddis, as well as ruckman Nic Naitanui and Coleman Medallist Josh Kennedy, the Eagles would defy the odds and produce an exciting and exhilarating brand of football to set the AFL by storm.
It led them to their first top-two finish since 2006, and after defeating the Hawks by 32 points in their qualifying final at Domain Stadium (doing so without Priddis, who sat out this match injured), they became the new premiership favourites.
However, the Hawks would re-inherit that mantle after advancing to their fourth consecutive grand final the hard way – they had to defeat the Adelaide Crows at home and then make another trip across the Nullarbor to defeat Fremantle.
After conceding the first goal of the game to Luke Shuey, the Hawks would kick the next nine goals in succession, before three late goals from the Eagles made the scoreline look more respectable.
They had been staring down the barrel of producing the lowest score in a grand final since Port Adelaide managed just 6.8 (44) eight years ago.
After kicking 75 goals during the regular season en route to the Coleman Medal, full-forward Kennedy had a day he would rather forget, as he was held goalless by Hawthorn defender James Frawley throughout the whole match.
It’s hard to believe that Frawley, who came to the Hawks as a free agent from Melbourne at the end of last season, was part of a side that won just two games for an entire season two years ago and were declared “an impediment to the industry”.
Pun intended, it’s fair to say that he has now buried the demons of his time at Melbourne; flash forward to now and his move to Waverley has been vindicated with a premiership victory.
As impressive as his performance on Kennedy was, he wasn’t the only winner with Rioli winning the Norm Smith Medal and Hodge and Mitchell running the show in the midfield. Lake was also impressive in defence.
The Hawks’ third consecutive premiership caps off yet another dominant season for the brown and gold, which started slowly with a stretch of four losses in seven games between Rounds 2 and 8.
It included a shock 10-point loss to the Greater Western Sydney Giants in Round 6, that coming after the Giants had been thrashed by the Eagles by 87 points in Perth.
The Hawks also had to deal with the sad passing of assistant coach Brett Ratten’s son Cooper in August, while they also lost another assistant in Brendon Bolton the same month after he won the top job at Carlton.
As for the Eagles, well, considering all the adversities the club faced at the start of the season, the club should be proud of what they achieved this campaign, and the pain of their grand final defeat should spur them on to go one better in 2016.
To even reach the decider was an amazing effort by both Simpson and the team. But if they are to prove that this year’s run to the grand final was no fluke, they’ll want to avoid the fate that befell Fremantle and the Sydney Swans last and this season respectively.
The Swans’ Lewis Jetta is expected to return home to Western Australia, and hence his potential arrival at the West Coast Eagles could provide the club with the x-factor they so sorely lacked in this year’s grand final.
No AFL fan will ever forget his famous run down the Great Southern Wing (and chase by Cyril Rioli) in the 2012 grand final, one which continues to be played in the highlights reel.
Perhaps the Eagles could use his run to help them provide more scoring and attacking opportunities in 2016, especially after Kennedy and Mark LeCras both failed to fire in this year’s grand final.
And that’s all she wrote for this season. Congratulations to the Hawthorn Football Club for winning its third consecutive premiership this season and cementing itself as the most dominant side this century. Commiserations to the West Coast Eagles, who I hope will continue to be a force in the future.
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