AFL 2020: Footy world reacts to Hawthorn’s alarming low

Apart from Alastair Clarkson, the footy world has been united in its belief something needs to change after Hawthorn hit a grim new low.

Hawthorn is in disarray.

Something has to give at Hawthorn after the AFL powerhouse slumped to an alarming low on Tuesday night.

Adelaide beat Alastair Clarkson’s men 12.11 (83) to 7.6 (48) to record its first win of the season and the Hawks were roundly condemned for failing to land a meaningful punch in the fight against the bottom-of-the-ladder Crows.

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Hawthorn is 15th and has won just four games all year, sparking calls for a rebuild.

AFL 360 co-host Mark Robinson had his say at halftime in last night’s match, when the Crows went into the sheds with a 15-point advantage.

“Hawthorn supporters would be sitting at home right now thinking, ‘What is going on?’” Robinson said on Fox Footy.

“If they go on to lose this game, I think this is a real crossroads game for the football club.

“Whatever they’ve got planned, they’ve got to bring this forward. They’ve been beaten up by a team that is the worst at beating up opposition teams this year.

“They’ve been smashed.

“Watching the game, they (the Crows) are harder at the contest … this team is one of the worst contested ball teams in the competition, Adelaide, and they are dishing it up to Hawthorn.”

Essendon legend Tim Watson highlighted Hawthorn’s lack of explosiveness in the midfield as a key reason for its failure to match it with other sides in 2020.

“Hawthorn were found wanting. Their inability to be able to spread — that’s got to be a real concern for them right across the ground, in particular their midfield,” Watson said on SEN Breakfast.

“They’ve got to be able to re-engineer the make-up of their midfield and that’s not easy to find the talent that can go in there and compete with the best teams.

“They’re good players inside but they don’t spread enough and quickly enough to match teams that have speed in their side.

“They’ve got to try and recruit that or draft that into their team.”

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Where to now for the Hawks?

Melbourne great Garry Lyon said the Crows were hungrier than their opposition. “They just played better. They were much better in the contest, they out-numbered Hawthorn nearly everywhere,” he told SEN.

Social media was also abuzz. Matt Smithson tweeted: “Can’t believe Hawthorn lost to a previously winless Adelaide. Gee whiz.”

Footy writer Ashley Browne said: “And like that, Hawthorn becomes a big, big story of the next few months. How they deal with it — president, board, coaches, players and fans will be fascinating. Fans have had it so good. Need to take their medicine now.”

Despite the outside noise about Hawthorn needing a major revamp, Clarkson isn’t panicking and won’t accept it’s all doom and gloom.

“When did you think the Bulldogs piece of silverware was going to come in 2015,” he told reporters when asked when he could envisage Hawthorn winning another premiership.

“What about Richmond? What about Hawthorn in 2006, 2007, when did you think theirs was going to come? When did you think Hawthorn’s was going to come when we were 1-6 in 2010 and played off in a prelim final next year?

“The game can turn very, very quickly … right now it just seems like we’re a world away from that, but it turns.”

The veteran coach has always preferred trading in recognised talent rather than rebuilding at the draft — and he took aim at the “compromised” system after the loss to Adelaide, saying it’s not as easy to rebuild with young stocks as people think.

“When people say why don’t you just rebuild and go to the draft — you can’t go to the draft, it’s so compromised,” he said.

“You have to do it with other mechanisms like free agency and the depth of your rookie list.”

Alastair Clarkson isn’t ready to blow the joint up and rebuild from scratch.

Clarkson was also pragmatic with his take on where the Hawks are now, saying the cyclical nature of footy may have finally caught up with the club that won four premierships between 2008-2015.

“We’re quite realistic. There’s a couple of clubs that sit 15th and 16th on the ladder that have been stellar clubs in this competition for a long time and that’s Sydney and Hawthorn,” Clarkson said.

“Part of it is just the cycle of footy unfortunately. Both us and Sydney have been clubs that haven’t wanted to get into this position on the ladder and perhaps if not for the circumstances we’re in we might not be that low either.

“We started the season 3-1 and we feel like we’re a better side … what this year has done is perhaps fast-track our views into where our next piece of silverware is going to come from.

“We need to give some young guys some opportunity and we’re starting to do that, but we just don’t have the belief that you throw 10 or 12 young kids to the wolves straight away. We’ll just do it bit by bit when we think they’re ready.”