In six decades of football, David Parkin hasn’t seen anything like these Hawks.

The man who first helped discover Hawthorn champion Sam Mitchell as a player, said only Carlton legend Greg Williams rivalled “the fat little bloke from Box Hill” for his “quickness of hand and mind”.

But since taking over as Hawthorn senior coach, Mitchell has not only fast-tracked the club’s rebuild and rewritten football’s recruiting manual, he has taken the game in a new direction.

It was at a breakfast about four years ago that Mitchell, 42, said ball movement would soon be king in the AFL, and that teams would have to kick 100 points a game to win the premiership.

So while critics mocked the club’s defensive struggles in the early stages of his tenure, Mitchell had a grand plan around offence.

If you can’t score, you can’t win, he said.

And in his fourth season as an AFL coach, Mitchell’s 3-0 Hawks are the new flag favourite on the back of one of the most controversial club calls in recent history to replace mastermind Alastair Clarkson in 2021.

Parkin, who is one of the most decorated and respected figures in the game, laments the bruises both men suffered in the switch.

But ultimately, Parkin said what the Hawks have produced on the field over the past 12 months is some of the most slick and stylish football the coaching icon has seen from a lifetime in the game.

“It is the most exciting brand of football I have ever seen,” Parkin told the Herald Sun.

“To see the skill level of those players, and their running power and the use of hands to move the ball – it is second-to-none.

“I have not seen another side – and I’m including the great Geelong teams and the Carlton teams here – move the ball like they are.

It is remarkably high praise for a man who captained Hawthorn’s 1971 premiership, and coached Hawthorn (1978) and Carlton (1981-82 and 1995) to four more flags, earning him Hall of Fame legend status at both clubs.

But Parkin, 82, said Mitchell had taught the Hawks a special way to play.

And the two-step Massimo D’Ambrosio bullet to Will Day from the back flank last weekend underlined the team’s immense skill, flamboyance and confidence early in 2025.

“It is beautiful,” Parkin said.

“It is the constant running that ensures that someone is always available either inside or over the top or on the outside (of the contest).

“And they train for it, you can watch it. I have watched it. I’m amazed by it.

“They work between half-back and half-forward and don’t even kick the ball at all sometimes.

“They move the ball both ways through the middle section of the ground in total control by hand.

“They can predict it and they know the way they want to play, and they can do it without being intercepted.”

Since round 8 last year, Mitchell’s troops have averaged 100 points per game – ranked No.1 in the game, according to Champion Data.

And since adding Josh Battle from St Kilda and West Coast’s Tom Barrass, the Hawks also boast the league’s best defensive record, conceding only 69 points per match on average.

That is despite being one-and-a-half years younger and 25 matches less experienced, on average per player, than Carlton last week.

The Hawks are doing it their way.

Parkin is unsurprised Mitchell predicted the code’s evolution given his meticulous study of the game as a player and coach.

“He is the best student of the game I have had the privilege of working with,” Parkin said.

“A lot of people can’t handle it. They can lose their way in regard to it.

“He is the only player I have ever known who at the beginning of his career would ring me, ask me to go to his games, and give him a full report on his performance.

“And I would be as honest as I could.”

RALPH: 14 REASONS WHY HAWKS ARE FLAG FAVOURITES

CHANGING THE GAME

Football has been through a 15-year period of low scoring. Contested ball and forward pressure tactics have ruled.

Tactics have been more dour and congested in recent times, compared to other eras.

But the Hawks don’t have to rely on beating the opposition up on the inside to win games.

Over their first three games this season, Hawthorn has lost the clearance battle by 17 and gone down in contested possession by 16.

Normally, those kinds of numbers would raise alarm bells in the coach’s box.

But the Hawks have become footy’s new ninjas, slicing the opposition on the outside.

And that is what the club believes can take it to another flag only 10 years after their last premiership dynasty wound up.

Mitchell’s method is all based on a recruiting model which prioritised running power and positional flexibility.

And clarity in a game plan which breeds the confidence to hit tough kicks and keep the ball moving.

Gun onballer Jai Newcombe is one of the club’s best contested ball and clearance winners, but it was his ability to lead Box Hill’s running sessions, and his on-field consistency, which first caught Mitchell’s eye early in 2021.

Mitchell was photographed sitting next to Harley Reid at Barrass’s wedding over summer and gun spearhead Oscar Allen is also in the club’s sights.

“They have recruited specific people for roles, as well as any club I think in the modern era,” Parkin said.

“This last two years, they have decided what they want and who they want and they have just gone and got them.”

And that is at the trade table and from the draft pool.

AGRESSIVE MOVES

Somewhere in one of Mitchell’s old notebooks is a bold statement he jotted down about exciting playmaker Josh Weddle.

So convinced Weddle would be a star, Mitchell said the Templestowe product was the most likely player from the 2022 draft class to play 200 games outside of perhaps the top couple of standouts in Harry Sheezel (North Melbourne), Will Ashcroft (Brisbane) and Hawks’ number seven pick Cam Mackenzie.

Weddle was dynamic and daring, and in time would develop Mark Blicavs-style flexibility to play across every line, Mitchell said in recruiting meetings.

In time, Weddle would be Hawthorn’s Mr Fix-it, the coach declared.

So as clubs rattled through the picks in the teens in the 2022 draft, Hawthorn finally found a trade partner in Sydney in a deal for the Swans’ pick 18.

In a move which was criticised at the time, Hawthorn gave up pick 27, plus future-second and third-rounders for the Swans’ 18.

Hawthorn was already stacked with rebounding defenders such as Jack Scrimshaw, Jarman Impey, Will Day and Changkuoth Jiath, and technically didn’t need another one.

But Mitchell saw Weddle as a future wingman, midfielder, forward and defender.

A trump card for the modern game.

THE HEARTBEAT

Few at Hawthorn predicted the heights hard nut onballer Newcombe would hit.

The man taken with pick number two in the 2021 mid-season draft is currently equal fifth favourite ($18) to win the Brownlow Medal.

Mitchell was coaching him at Box Hill in the VFL and would provide weekly reminders to the club’s recruiters about why the Hawks had to take him mid-season.

It came down to two, Newcombe, who Mitchell loved, and big ruckman Ned Moyle, who Clarkson was interested in.

The decision was made by recruiting boss Mark McKenzie and his team, and overseen by football boss Rob McCartney, to go for Newcombe.

Moyle slipped to Gold Coast at five.

And when Newcombe had 14 tackles in his debut against the Swans at the SCG, the Hawks knew one of the most important pillars of their team was locked in.

‘MASS’ BONUS

Massimo D’Ambrosio has been a free hit for the Hawks.

The man who was last year included in the All-Australian squad of 44 started weighing up his future at Essendon in round 3 in 2023.

He had 27 touches against St Kilda but had goals kicked on him in an 18-point loss, and was dropped the following week to the VFL for one month.

That is when the seed was planted about an exit move.

The Hawks had been tracking him since he was taken pick three in the mid-season draft in 2022 and swooped when Essendon only offered him a one-year deal late in 2023.

Hawthorn offered him two years, and has since extended his deal to 2027.

MITCH SWITCH

The Hawks opened up the doors to the club over summer for its ‘Full Sweat’ documentary.

Such a move has invited criticism in the past, but the Hawks are encouraged to express their own flair and personality.

The club wants their players to work hard and enjoy their football, which is a distinct change from the previous premiership era at Hawthorn where media coverage was almost discouraged.

But one month on from the release of the documentary, the Hawks on Saturday night will attempt to win their fourth-straight game of the season against another heavyweight premiership contender GWS in Launceston.

Clarkson’s Kangaroos also turned a corner last weekend, hammering Melbourne. Importantly, the club is highly confident free agent Luke Davies-Uniacke stays in the face of a godfather offer from St Kilda.

Parkin said the tension around Hawthorn’s coaching succession plan from Clarkson to Mitchell in 2020-2021 was brutal, but was adamant the call was the right one.

“It was very, very difficult for the two people involved, who I both know very well,” he said.

“It was just unfortunate it unfolded the way it did.

“He (Clarko) was pretty upset in the manner it was done, and I don’t blame him one bit.

“But to see what he’s doing at North Melbourne is a great thing for footy, getting a club that has been down for a while back up and going again.”