Watching the Hawks over the first nine rounds, there are a few things that have me worried and others that make me very happy.
Young players such as Bradley Hill, Tim O’Brian, James Sicily, Kaiden Brand, Billy Hartung, Daniel Howe and Kieran Lovell have shown they are going to do fine once the older players are gone.
The drawback is that some are not getting the experience that you would hope due to the older players’ performances, and have left as a consequence.
Mitch Hallahan (Gold Coast), Luke Lowden (Adelaide Crows), Kyle Cheney (Adelaide Crows) and Jed Anderson (North Melbourne) all would have been fantastic to have waiting in the wings, but opportunities at other clubs were worth departing for, and I can’t blame them.
Of course players like Kurt Heatherley, Jermaine Miller-Lewis, Black Hardwick Dallas Willsmore, and Teia Miles are all playing great football in the VFL and should get their chances this year.
All in all, I’m very happy with the youngsters we have getting ready to replace the older players when the time comes.
One of the big worries at this point in time is the Hawks don’t have a replacement for Luke Hodge, Shaun Burgoyne or Jordan Lewis. That entire group, along with Sam Mitchell, are the hard men of the team and strong leaders.
Liam Shiels will fill the gap as a great captain when Hodge retires, but he has his role as a shut-down player, and he does that fantastically. Lovell has show why he is classed as Mitchell 2.0, but the Hawks still need to get in the high end of the draft or trade a like-for-like for Hodge and Burgoyne or get a Patrick Cripps or Dustin Martin type.
Jonathan O’Rourke should have been the replacement type for the mids, but so far he has not impressed. Taylor Duryea was also supposed to go into the midfield, but the defence’s performances mean he needs to stay at the back. The hope is that once Angus Litherland or Daniel Howe develops, Duryea will move into the mids, as he can get in there and win the hard ball.
All in all, there are more positives for the future of the Hawks than worries. But the worry is a major hole that needs to be addressed.
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We’re taking a look at one player from each team that needs to make a difference this week, starting with the ANZAC Day games.
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