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Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell insists the “vast majority” of the club’s next premiership team is already at hand, and the Hawks need only to add “bits and pieces” to realise their dream.
The Hawks finished 13th last season, winning eight matches, but through the trade period and national draft were able to complete the fast track Mitchell, now heading into his second season in charge, had wanted.
Happy days on the way: Hawks coach Sam Mitchell is bullish about where the Hawks are heading with a rebuilt list.Credit:AFL Photos / Getty Images
The Hawks, who won three premierships between 2013-15, have not made the finals since 2018, when their “top-up” mentality ran out of puff.
“Ten clubs had been trying to get Lloyd Meek. Finally, he had wanted to come to us and there was no way to get it done. What Jaeger did, unfortunately, because I loved Jaeger, he was a fantastic person and fantastic leader for our club, but it enabled us to get two players in the end,” Mitchell said.
“We were able to get Lloyd over and … we were able to trade one of the draft picks we had, to get Josh Weddle, who is going to be a fantastic player for us as well.
New Hawthorn board director James Merlino (left) and new president Andy Gowers have backed Sam Mitchell’s rebuild.Credit:Tash Sorensen
“So, what we have done is we have been able to regenerate the list a year quicker than we might have otherwise.
“What that means is we have now got, what I would say, is a great core of premiership players right in front of us. Rather than going into the next draft and the next trade thinking we need to find premiership players, now I think the vast majority of our premiership players are sitting right here and all we need to do is look for little bits and pieces to add to this group.
“When you look at it in that context, it’s very consistent with our strategy, exactly what we have been trying to do for 18 months.”
The Hawks traded O’Meara and their future fourth-round selection to the Dockers in exchange for Meek and a future second-round selection, which was tied to the Western Bulldogs.
In a major generational change, the Hawks also let Tom Mitchell depart, the Brownlow medallist landing at Collingwood via a three-way trade. As part of the deal, Ollie Henry was traded from Collingwood to Geelong and Cooper Stephens moved from the Cats to Hawthorn. Skipper Ben McEvoy retired, while Liam Shiels has since joined North Melbourne.
Mitchell said he had met with Stephens “a couple of times and had tried to woo him”.
“I thought it might have been 12 months down the track. [I] was really pleased that we were able to get him as part of the trade, 21-year-old, very early draft pick and showing some great signs on the track,” he said.
Karl Amon, 27, also joined the club from Port Adelaide as an unrestricted free agent.
Mitchell said the Hawks had “worked very hard” to retain Jack Gunston, but the triple-premiership forward had opted to head to Brisbane after an emotional year when he lost his father.
“We have been really clear, maybe 14 or 15 months ago, we came up with a strategy about how to build our next premiership era, how to build success,” Mitchell said.
“What we decided in that group was that we needed to make some change. We needed to make some culture change, we needed to bring in some really developing young players, go back to the draft, to do all those things to have success. [But] there is going to be some pain along the way.”
Luke Breust is the only Hawk who will be older than 30 when next season begins.
Mitchell said he was disappointed with the Hawks’ 2023 fixture, for they were off Broadway, having been overlooked for any Thursday, Friday and Saturday night matches in Melbourne in the first 15 rounds.
“I think the more bums on seats to be honest,” Mitchell said of one of the club’s key objectives for 2023.
