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If only they didn’t have to play Gold Coast twice, things could have been so different for the Hawks.
They end the season six points shy of the finals. Eight points were left on the table against the woeful Suns, one defeat catastrophic, the other deflating, both utterly confusing.
10-11-1 and 12th position vastly understate where Hawthorn ended the season. They were 6-3-1 after the bye, notching wins over Adelaide and Sydney, a split second away from another against the Giants.
After looking old, slow and disinterested in the season’s first month – and really, much of the first three – they looked sharp, focused and structured from the middle of June onwards. Their defence was watertight, with no opponent breaking 100 against them in the final 16 weeks after five did in the first six, and the offensive ball movement, once hopeless, tame, and merely in hope, became incisive and punishing.
They went from looking like a team that was existing only as a drunken memory of itself to one that had two determined feet firmly planted in the present. And with that present comes a suddenly bright future.
The Hawks were always destined to follow the Sydney and Geelong models of retooling instead of rebuilding. The best clubs in the AFL go for tweezers instead of sledgehammers.
Early in the season, though, it seemed like the list might be too inadequate for mere tweaking. Hawthorn, on the field, seemed like a building with not enough pillars, too unstable for a renovation to make any difference.
But then the talent surfaced. Ryan Burton emerged, Will Langford salvaged his career and Tom Mitchell transitioned from ‘good stats on a bad team guy who Nathan Buckley throws shade at while everyone quietly agrees with his assessment’ to ‘unquestionably elite midfielder’.
(AAP Image/Joe Castro)
Jack Gunston was given new life in a new role floating across the defence, where his composure and precise kicking are invaluable, and Taylor Duryea also found a handy new niche as a defensive forward. Kaiden Brand and Tim O’Brien became key position pillars, and James Sicily moved from ‘possibly not anything’ to ‘definitely something’.
The list, once littered with age and questions, is now filled with what appear to be youthful answers. Tantalising young talents are present in all three phases of the game and established, still capable veterans will be able to nurse them to maturity.
If The Artist Formerly Known as Jaeger O’Meara can resurface with functional knees and Grant Birchall and Cyril Rioli can play close to a full season, this team could be scary in 2018.
Questions still, of course, abound. There is, despite the unreasonableness, a reason why Hawthorn lost to the Gold Coast twice this year. There is still a foot speed deficiency and a certain lack of athletic force, especially in the midfield.
Teams that can leverage quick-twitch power and the balance between physical dynamism and fury, especially at the stoppages, are able to burn the Hawks.
Collingwood, St Kilda, Port Adelaide and Richmond all crushed the Hawks at various times this year, their pressure too manic and rapid for Hawthorn to handle.
Despite the mid-season renaissance, the Hawks ended the year in the bottom four for contested ball and clearance differential, problems that will need to be addressed by list management.
But we’re talking about two or three players, maybe four or five. In April, Hawthorn were looking more like 13 or 14 away from being relevant again.
Relevance has already found them once more, as it always tends to. They have a rich list and the best coach in the game.
For those who like their September line-ups varied, savour the month ahead – next year an old fixture is set to feature.