Hawthorn’s bold off-season moves has set it up for a “torturous” period ahead and a “huge challenge” to coach Sam Mitchell, according to Fox Footy pundits.
The departures of Tom Mitchell, Jaeger O’Meara, Jack Gunston, Ben McEvoy, Liam Shiels and Kyle Hartigan total 1181 games of experience out the door to leave a big leadership void on the Hawks’ list as they commit to a full blown rebuild.
It means six of Hawthorn’s 10 most experienced players from 2022 won’t be on their list next year and leaves the 31-year old Luke Breust (260 games) as their clear most experienced player.
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After Breust their next most experienced are Chad Wingard (204 games), Jarman Impey (150), Sam Frost (141), Blake Hardwick (124), recruit Karl Amon (124) and James Sicily (115), while no other Hawks have reached 100 games.
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“Have a look at that loss of experience … that virtually commits them to a four to six-win season next year. These guys that have left win you games and they show the way Monday to Friday during the week,” dual premiership Kangaroo David King said on Trading Day.
“We’ve seen Gunston win them games off his own boot, Mitchell has been a Brownlow Medallist. The Hawthorn discussion will go deep.”
The moves come after Hawthorn’s failed attempts to trade its experienced players in last year’s trade period in Sam Mitchell’s first off-season at the helm.
It’s a complete contrast from the club’s list management strategy under Mitchell’s predecessor and coaching great Alastair Clarkson, who for several years prioritised recruiting players via trade and free agency over the draft.
Herald Sun reporter Jon Ralph said Mitchell is “unpicking everything Clarkson tried to build” – pointing to how the Hawks originally surrendered Pick 14 to land Tom Mitchell from Sydney and Pick 10 and a second rounder to pry O’Meara out of Gold Coast.
Six years later and for Tom Mitchell they received two third round picks from Collingwood and former first rounder Cooper Stephens from Geelong, and for O’Meara they landed Fremantle ruckman Lloyd Meek and a future second rounder.
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“What it shows you is the extraordinary faith Hawthorn has in Sam Mitchell,” Ralph said.
“This might be three or five years of intense pain. The only thing he wants to do is win a fifth premiership – he doesn’t care about finishing seventh or eighth.
“It will be torturous. They will bring in young players and they will get there eventually, but it’s going to be a tough watch.”
But King fears the Hawks may have cut too hard and questioned how long the club would support Mitchell for if they struggle badly.
“Every board supports the coach when it’s at this stage, this is the easy part. ‘Yeah purge those guys if you like, yeah get in the picks you like’,” King said.
“It’s 18 months down the track, we saw the pressure that came under David Noble almost instantaneously.
“I just hope Sam Mitchell hasn’t purged too hard in the second year. You can do it in the first year, I think you’ve got a free hit first year and find out what’s there and show the absolute bottom out period.
“But can you do it second year and still survive the next 18 months? It’s a huge challenge.”
Ralph however thinks Mitchell will be given plenty of time to build his list, pointing to how the club fast-tracked its coaching succession plan and paid out Clarkson’s lucrative final year of his contract to put all its faith in its current boss.
“Sam Mitchell is the safest coach in the competition. They sacked the greatest coach in modern history to bring in Sam Mitchell,” he said.
“I think he has an absolute free swing for four years, then of course, the pressure comes on.
“When you’re prepared to pay Alastair Clarkson $900,000 not to coach your club, do you reckon they’re going to put this bloke under any pressure in the next two years?”
