Hawthorn’s decision to trade out Jaeger O’Meara and Tom Mitchell has helped turn around the engine room
The Hawks have struggled to start 2023. But dig a little deeper than wins and losses and there are plenty of signs their aggressive off-season moves were the right calls.
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They were meant to be dark days for the Hawthorn engine room.
When the club made the bold call to trade-out Tom Mitchell and Jaeger O’Meara as well as losing Jack Gunston, there were considerable fears the Hawks would get badly beaten up around the ball in 2023.
But something extraordinary has happened over the first seven weeks of the new season.
In what might be the biggest tick so far for Sam Mitchell’s men, Jai Newcombe, James Worpel and Will Day shaded the Western Bulldogs’ blue-chip engine room last weekend to win the centre clearances 12-8 at Marvel Stadium.
And while there were considerable doubts about the trade decisions over summer, the midfield resurgence has largely validated the club’s rebuild moves ahead of the Hawks’ first meeting against the former Hawthorn star, O’Meara, in Perth on Saturday night.
In an unexpected plot twist, Hawthorn can leapfrog Fremantle on the ladder with an upset win at Optus Stadium which could hammer a nail into the coffin of Fremantle’s finals hopes.
The Hawks might also might have the most improved player in the league in Conor Nash, the new hard-nut midfielder, as well as ruckman Ned Reeves, who has polled AFL Coaches’ votes in two of the past three games.
Nash racked up 26 disposals against the Dogs and has averaged 14 contested possessions, 11 ground balls and 5.3 clearances across the past three games, which included the tackle of the season when he laid out Crow Jake Soligo.
They may no longer be the unsociable Hawks, but Nash, who came close to being delisted in 2020-21, has become the lead wrecking ball.
And by moving on Mitchell and O’Meara in last year’s trade period, it has created the space for others to grow in the middle.
Day, who has averaged 27 disposals a game, looks like a future All-Australian, Worpel is headed for a contract extension after recapturing his best and the Hawks hit the jackpot with Newcombe in the mid-season draft.
Second-year ballwinner Josh Ward is a running machine on the wing, Cam McKenzie will be a beauty, and the Hawks blooded two more in young ruckman Max Ramsden and playmaker Josh Weddle on Saturday.
And if the club was wondering who would be its next A-Grade ruckmen after Ben McEvoy’s retirement, Reeves and Lloyd Meek have eased any concerns.
As well as the considerable midfield investment at the draft, a big key to Hawthorn’s clearance game are the rucks.
The club has won the second-most hit-outs in the league this season and are fifth for first-possession to clearance, according to Champion Data.
Where things have broken down badly is forward of the ball where Mitch Lewis’ absence cost the club, until his encouraging return from a knee injury on Saturday, taking 11 marks for 1.4 against the Dogs.
While they are getting the ball forward, it’s their inefficiencies in attack which hurt the Hawks with a makeshift forward setup.
What the club needs is more class in the forward half and Dustin Martin-clone Harley Reid would be a dream draft pick if the Hawks end up on the bottom below West Coast and secure the No. 1 selection.
They were pounded by 140 points combined in the first two losses to Essendon and Sydney Swans to start the season and dubbed easybeats, fuelling speculation Hawthorn may have pulled the wrong rein.
“I wonder whether they will be cutting too deep,” queried Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes.
But chief executive Justin Reeves was adamant at the start of the season the club was building its next great premiership side rather than “just hang on, finish mid-range and do that for another decade or so.”
“Hawthorn is in the business of winning premierships. We are building our next premiership team,” Reeves said.
“We are in a phase of building and we will build towards something special.”
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