Hawthorn’s season at the crossroads as they head to WA
Legendary coach Alastair Clarkson is facing a huge challenge to revive the struggling Hawks as they head to Perth for the next three weeks.
After sparking a post-match storm in Sydney, Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson heads west seeking inspiration to revive a season that may come only through drastic intervention.
Hub life has proven horrible for the hapless Hawks. Their finals hopes are in peril as they reach the halfway mark of an abridged season with a game against Carlton on Friday at Optus Stadium.
They have recorded four straight losses since arriving in Sydney to slip from fourth spot after Round 4 to 15th position.
A recipe of practising goalkicking through the rugby union posts at Coogee Oval and recovering in the nearby surf while based in Sydney has clearly not been to the Hawks’ tastes.
Champion Data assessed their kicking efficiency against the Swans at 44 per cent.
It is the worst ever for a Clarkson-coached side and the fourth poorest AFL-wide over the past 15 years. Winning enough of the football is also a concern.
Clarkson left Sydney critical of the free kick count while calling into question Coleman Medal leader Tom Papley, saying he “milks free kicks as good as anyone”. The Swans star had the last laugh after kicking four goals in the seven-point win.
A more pressing concern is actually finding a solution to Hawthorn’s current woes in an environment likely to be more hostile than NSW in the past three weeks has been.
They must now quarantine in a hotel in Perth with far less freedom than players enjoyed in Sydney as Clarkson ponders whether to change tack, if possible, to revive their hopes.
The side beaten by the Swans was, on average, two years older than Sydney.
Only the late withdrawal of Paul Puopolo earlier this season in their win over Richmond prevented them from fielding the oldest team in VFL/AFL history.
Leading into the clash against Sydney, Clarkson declared he would back his veterans again to deliver, but the performance will surely test his will ahead of games against Carlton, Fremantle and West Coast in Perth.
Club captain Ben Stratton is struggling for form. James Frawley gifted Papley the free kick that so angered Clarkson in an effective 12-point play in the second term.
Tom Scully made an encouraging return in 2019 after a series ankle injury at the Giants threatened to end his career.
His player rating is far below any other season in an 11-year career that began at Melbourne and cannot be simply explained by the reduced quarters.
Shaun Burgoyne, the oldest player in the competition, is averaging a goal per match, which is his best since 2008, but is gathering fewer touches than any season aside from 2002.
The Hawks had squared the ledger at this stage last year. They made a late but ultimately fruitless surge toward September based on some defensive masterpieces.
They held grand finalists the Giants to 29 points in Round 21. Reigning premiers West Coast managed just 10 goals on their home turf in the week before finals.
Last year Hawthorn conceded the third fewest points for the season. Only Adelaide are faring worse on this front in 2020.
Hawthorn’s struggle to contain rivals is a facet in their faltering in 2020, which includes their concession of the highest score for the year of 108 points against Geelong.
The Hawks fell a win shy of playing finals in 2019 but unless they can find the fountain of youth or discover a richer vein of form out west, they will finish closer to the bottom this year.
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