Hawthorn paid a lot to land Jaeger O’Meara but later draft picks are fuelling fast rebuild
THE trade was labelled “one of the worst of all time” and however you split it, Jaeger O’Meara cost Hawthorn a lot. But JON RALPH writes under Alastair Clarkson, the Hawks are turning hidden gems into rolled gold.
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HAWTHORN might never outright win on the Jaeger O’Meara deal, a trade declared last year as one of the “worst trades of all time” by Kane Cornes.
Like the Chris Judd-West Coast deal, assessing its value is a weekly proposition for many of the clubs involved.
Actually picking apart the elements involved is complicated and confusing, but in essence the Hawks gave up pick 10 and their second-round selection of 2017 for a player with huge question marks over his body.
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To get that pick 10 they had to hand over their 2017 first-rounder, St Kilda’s eventual No. 7 selection who became a likely 200-gamer in Hunter Clark, plus picks 23 and 36.
The Hawks only got 23 by trading Brad Hill home, while St Kilda turned its 2017 draft bounty of 23 and 36 into Ben Long and Josh Battle and Gold Coast’s pick 10 became the rapidly improving Jack Bowes.
So however you split it, he cost them a heck of a lot.
Like Judd before him, O’Meara can only do what he is as he holds up his end of the bargain.
Which is this year churn out 19 mostly excellent games with midfield polish and the kind of spread that has seen him kick 16.5 so far.
Cornes wasn’t Robinson Crusoe — as late as Round 13 last year the Hawks were second-last and about to give up pick 2 for a player who only played six games last year.
And as the Hawks know all too well, a club’s recruiting never lives and dies on one selection if you can nail your late and rookie picks.
On that score, label the sum of their last few seasons a recruiting masterclass.
In Saturday night’s side the Hawks played a string of role players and stars who were either taken well after pick 40, as rookie elevations or kids who didn’t even grow up in this country.
So not only is O’Meara paying his way, they secured a likely Brownlow Medallist in Tom Mitchell for pick 14 and then nailed a series of late value picks.
Blake Hardwick (pick 44) is as underrated as they come, James Worpel (pick 45), is becoming a new cult figure, veteran Ben Stratton (pick 46) might be All Australian this year.
Teia Miles (pick 49) and Marc Pittonet (pick 50) just play their role, while the returning James Sicily (pick 56) is one of the game’s emerging stars.
Paul Puopolo (pick 66), Kaiden Brand (pick 66), Harry Morrison (pick 74) are late picks, Jon Ceglar and Luke Breust are rookies and Conor Nash and Conor Glass are Irish category two rookies.
As Nash said recently before his debut, the Hawks have been hunting him since he was 15 years of age.
He looks a cracker, a 197cm running machine who mixed seven tackles with three shots at goal and a bit of Gaelic flair against St Kilda.
Worpel was taken with one of the steak-knives picks from the Luke Hodge trade, while Harry Morrison was the fourth-last player taken in the 2016 national draft.
The Hawks have mixed astute trading with elite culture and coaching to fast-track these kids in the fastest rebuild in history.
Even when they stuff up — Tyrone Vickery was a bust, Jon O’Rourke a waste of a first-round pick, Billy Hartung and Dayle Garlett didn’t stay long — the later picks get them out of jail.
Across at Collingwood something similar is happening amid an injury crisis that would have brought the Pies to their knees in any other year.
Mason Cox is an American rookie, Brodie Mihocek is a rookie from the VFL, Jack Madgen a former basketballer, Tom Langdon a pick 65.
When your high picks like Jordan De Goey (pick five) begin to flourish, it gets to you exactly where the Pies are now — pushing for a top-two spot.
It underlines again why priority picks are far from a panacea, and why Gold Coast’s development and culture is just as important as securing multiple top-10 picks this year.
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Originally published as Hawthorn paid a lot to land Jaeger O’Meara but later draft picks are fuelling fast rebuild
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