Patrick Dangerfield declares Hawks ‘the story of the trade period’

A Geelong star has revealed an intriguing theory on Hawthorn’s bombshell trade period moves, and it’s all linked to a 19th AFL team.

Geelong AFL star Patrick Dangerfield has put the microscope on Hawthorn’s recent list strategy, declaring the decisions to ship out Tom Mitchell, Jaeger O’Meara and Jack Gunston ‘the story of the trade period’.

The dramatic push to shed established stars leaves Hawthorn with an incredibly young playing list, with only three players remaining at Waverley Park aged 28 and over.

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Dangerfield said it’s clearly a concerted effort from the club and coach Sam Mitchell to rebuild ahead of the expected introduction of a 19th AFL team in Tasmania in upcoming years.

“I know there’s going to be short-term pain but what you do not want to do is rebuild while Tasmania come into the competition,” Dangerfield told The Field with JJ and Danger.

“We’ve seen from the Suns and GWS’s introduction into the AFL, the teams that were rebuilding then are still working through that rebuild now – some of them.

“I think it’s a concerted effort to go ‘we’re not doing that, we’re doing it now, we’re doing it my way’.”

Jaeger O'Meara and Jack Gunston of the Hawks celebrate winning the round one AFL match between the Hawthorn Hawks and the North Melbourne Kangaroos at Melbourne Cricket Ground on March 20, 2022 in Melbourne, Australia.

While Dangerfield said he wasn’t in love with the strategy, he said he understood the decision to not go ‘half-arsed’ with the rebuild by hanging on to a host of veterans.

“They’ve lost arguably their three best players for not a huge return,” he said.

“But if this is your plan going forward, history tells you it’s always good to keep your most experienced players.

“Perhaps they’re thinking maybe we can get them another way, we can pay less for them from other clubs potentially next year rather than high-end salaries like we’re led to believe with Mitchell and O’Meara.”

Dramatic shift continues at Hawthorn

The dramatic roster shift means it’s never been clearer that Hawthorn is Sam Mitchell’s team.

O’Meara is headed home to Western Australia to play for Fremantle, while Mitchell became a Magpie and Gunston left for Brisbane.

They were supposed to lead the post-threepeat era and help Hawthorn defy the AFL’s equalisation methods but the club barely made it out of mediocrity in Clarkson’s final seasons.

Mitchell departs with a Brownlow Medal and two All-Australian blazers but he and O’Meara played in the finals only once in six seasons in brown and gold.

Sam Mitchell, Senior Coach of the Hawks addresses his players during the 2022 AFL Round 08 match between the Essendon Bombers and the Hawthorn Hawks at Marvel Stadium on May 07, 2022 in Melbourne, Australia.

There was no greater sign of the generational shift than the fact Cooper Stephens, a 21-year-old midfielder who was Geelong’s No.16 pick in the 2019 draft, was the main return for Mitchell.

Lloyd Meek, a lightly played but promising 24-year-old ruckman, was part of the compensation for O’Meara.

Both Mitchell and O’Meara spent increasing time out of the centre playing up forward in coach Mitchell’s first year in charge as the likes of Jai Newcombe and top-10 draftee Josh Ward gobbled up extra opportunity.

There was also an early season statement when Liam Shiels was dropped to the VFL after round 1.

James Worpel, who Sam Mitchell worked closely with even before becoming senior coach, has the perfect chance now to bounce back from his difficult 2022 campaign.

Expect the smooth-moving Will Day to go through the middle more often next year, too.

“We’ve made no secret we have a clear strategy of getting games into our younger guys,” Hawks list boss Mark McKenzie said.

“I think we’ve seen that this year with the number of younger guys who’ve played games, and they’ve shown some real improvement.

“We’ll continue on that trajectory and tonight (Wednesday) we’ve been able to add to our group but also add to our draft hand for this year and next.”

Tom Mitchell of the Hawks looks on during the 2022 AFL Round 10 match between the Hawthorn Hawks and the Brisbane Lions at UTAS Stadium on May 22, 2022 in Launceston, Australia.

Shiels joined captain Ben McEvoy in retirement at season’s end and Kyle Hartigan was delisted, leaving Luke Breust – who the Giants tried to lure back to NSW 12 months ago – as the only Hawk older than 30.

GWS also launched an unsuccessful bid for Chad Wingard at this time last year, while O’Meara chose the Dockers over the Giants on Wednesday.

The obvious concern is whether Hawthorn has cut too deeply and left a major void in the leadership stakes but McKenzie believes they prepared for this scenario.

“It’s an interesting one because I think this year coach Sam Mitchell flattened the leadership group, which allowed a lot of our younger guys to develop their leadership,” McKenzie said.

“That’s really taken away the age of the person and we’ve seen guys like Dylan Moore, Mitch Lewis, Jack Scrimshaw and ‘CJ’ (Changkuoth Jiath) come through, just from that.

“It’s their club, there’s responsibility there and those guys jumped up and did a really good job.”

Star defender James Sicily looks the odds-on favourite to be McEvoy’s captaincy successor and will be one of the older players at the club as he prepares to turn 28 in January.

The rest of the experienced crop includes Wingard and Sam Frost (both 29), Jarman Impey and recruit Karl Amon (both 27) and Blake Hardwick (25).

They will almost certainly be the youngest team in the AFL next season, a fascinating comparison to the Dad’s Army squad under Clarkson towards the end.

– With NCA Newswire

Originally published as Patrick Dangerfield declares Hawks ‘the story of the trade period’