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Here’s a little exercise for perspective Hawthorn fans: imagine you could travel back through time and find yourself in 2006, ten years ago, and tell that version of yourself, the one who grew up watching their Hawks lose and lose and lose for 15 years, that by 2016 we will have won four flags.
Not only that, but we will have played in six prelims, five grand finals, have over 75,000 members, and put millions of dollars in the club’s coffers.
How would that you have felt? You would have been over the moon! Riding the bumps with a grin because something special was about to happen.
Well it has happened, it is over for now for this group of players, with Cyril Rioli and Grant Birchall the only ones from the 2008 side to play on beyond next season.
Take heart, Alastair Clarkson is still the coach, he’s still young, and he has told the club he wants to do it all over again with a new group of young players. He’s still hungry for success, he will adapt, recruit and rebuild this club and bring us more glory.
Hopefully our kids, the ones that will be back next year, will finally understand the difference in the speed and skill of the game from the VFL to the AFL and work harder in the off season. They just weren’t good enough this year, so we relied too heavily on our older players, who didn’t have another 26 games of greatness in them.
Since 2010 those veterans have played in 14 finals, so during the same period that most teams seasons ended at 23 games year after year, we have played another half a season of all finals matches – only Sydney and Geelong come close to that stat.
Hawthorn’s legacy isn’t completely out of the finals yet either, we still have two former assistant coaches in the final four, which speaks volumes for our coach and our organisation, and one of them will be coaching in the 2016 grand final.
Do not lament what will not be this year, rather rejoice in what we have accomplished, the great achievements of this groups of players, of this amazing coach, of our wonderful footy club, that no one can take away from us.
We are Hawthorn, and we will be back!
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