How close are Hawthorn to a flag?

[Yoda_]

At the start of every year, we as supporters work off best case scenario. Hawks no difference. Do they have the firepower to match Brisbane, Geelong, Adelaide, Gold Coast (with Trac now)?

Will Gunston put up another PB? Will the kids take a step after year 4? Will they have a clean bill of health for most of there best 23?

Day comes in but will he survive more than 5 rounds? Is Mitch Lewis going to survive with the more durable Chol and Dear’s reliability?

Lots of questions that need to be answered for this team who face apex into the h&a top 8 to jump into the top 4 after 23 rounds

 

[Mr Meow]

Over half the top 10 in the B&F were 28 or older including both your best and fairest and leading goal kicker.

5 for the old, cooked Cats (none in our top 2). I figured we'd have way more than the young, zippy Hawks.

 

[Yoda_]

4 for the old, cooked Cats (none in our top 2). I figured we'd have way more than the young, zippy Hawks.

I don’t rate the cats depth fwiw, they’ll win enough junk yard home games at ABCD stadium to finish top 6. Happens every year

 

[Mr Meow]

I don’t rate the cats depth fwiw, they’ll win enough junk yard home games at ABCD stadium to finish top 6. Happens every year

Good to know.

Geelong's away record has carried us in recent seasons. 21 wins, 11 losses away from GMHBA over 2024-2025; 13 wins and 5 losses in Geelong during that time. That's really inconvenient for your lazy, braindead theory though.

 

[Yoda_]

Good to know.

Geelong's away record has carried us in recent seasons. 21 wins, 11 losses away from GMHBA over 2024-2025; 13 wins and 5 losses in Geelong during that time. That's really inconvenient for your lazy, braindead theory though.

Actually, you your good self may have alerted me to this fact before.

Apologies

 

[Mr Meow]

Actually, you your good self may have alerted me to this fact before.

Apologies

No worries. Your theory does fit the pre-Covid Cats. Since then our away form has improved and home form isn't quite as dominant. In finals there's just a dynasty-in-the-making side ready to pick us off (Richmond, then Brisbane), so the "Geelong suck away from home" stuff still gets a run.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

Dear kicked 25 as a 19yr old.
Lewis kicked 36 from just 15 games in 2023.

Are you really going to pretend like they couldn’t kick 25 each in an entire season?

 

[WalshistheGOAT]

Dear kicked 25 as a 19yr old.
Lewis kicked 36 from just 15 games in 2023.

Are you really going to pretend like they couldn’t kick 25 each in an entire season?

More so be healthy for a whole season. Same as Day.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

More so be healthy for a whole season. Same as Day.

Dear has had 1 injury in his career. The stress fracture in his back.

Lewis had an ACL after being knocked out in a marking contest. Prior to that a partial ACL strain and a shoulder reco.
It’s not like he’s had reoccurring hamstrings or soft tissue, they’ve been impact injuries and just plain bad luck, and bad luck generally doesn’t run forever.

 

[WalshistheGOAT]

Dear has had 1 injury in his career. The stress fracture in his back.

Lewis had an ACL after being knocked out in a marking contest. Prior to that a partial ACL strain and a shoulder reco.
It’s not like he’s had reoccurring hamstrings or soft tissue, they’ve been impact injuries and just plain bad luck, and bad luck generally doesn’t run forever.

Stress fractures aren't exactly an easy going fix.

Lewis is made of glass, been injured every year forever.

Same as Day.

We went through the same with Marchbank, Martin and Cuningham. It was one thing after another on repeat for half a decade.

 

[Mr Meow]

It's crazy to think that Lewis and Battle are the same age: 27.

Also, that 21 year old Weddle has almost played as many games as Day, who turns 25 next season.

Day and Lewis have really had terrible runs so far.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

Stress fractures aren't exactly an easy going fix.

Lewis is made of glass, been injured every year forever.

Same as Day.

We went through the same with Marchbank, Martin and Cuningham. It was one thing after another on repeat for half a decade.

Stress fracture in the back, generally not a reoccurring issue. Dear is a special talent.

Lewis has had some bad luck but he’s a proven goalkicker. Getting 25 from him, like I originally posted, isn’t unthinkable.

 

[MasterSamurai]

There's a lot of room for improvement....lot!! Yet, this is after making a prelim. So, Oppo teams are just going to improve but not Hawthorn?? Yea, I guess this is the same mob minds that were adamant Hawks won't make finals for ten years just 18 months ago.
Or that , 2024 was nothing but a sugar hit. Or that Jeremy Cameron

5

Jeremy Cameron

Age

32

Ht

196cm

Wt

94kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.5

3star

K

9.0

3star

HB

3.4

3star

M

5.4

5star

T

1.6

4star

G

2.6

5star

D

10.0

3star

K

7.1

3star

HB

2.9

2star

M

4.6

4star

T

2.0

3star

G

1.9

5star

D

8.2

2star

K

5.0

2star

HB

3.2

3star

M

4.6

5star

T

2.4

4star

G

2.0

5star

is 10 years younger than Gunston??
Maybe, it's more to do with people hoping/coping with the fact that why can't Hawthorn rebuild for two/three decades like most clubs and just **** off and not be relevant?? Just maybe...

 

[AlwaysHawks15]

Interesting, the initial point I made and reiterated was that teams around the Hawks have more internal development.

Hawthorn do have a bunch of 30yo key players in comparison to the teams I named.

You brought up your “young core” but are unwilling to compare that to similar teams?

Is it because you agree that the Hawks young core doesn’t stack up and thus they need/ed to trade in a midfielder to help them compete?

Weddle, Dear, Watson, Ward, MacKenzie, Butler, MacDonald, Ginnivan, Day, Newcombe, D’Ambrossio
Vs

Anderson, Rowell, Humphrey, Walter, Read, Mac Andrew, Davies, Graham, Moyle, Lombard, Rogers, JUH, Jeffrey, 2x top 5 picks

Vs

Serong, Young, Jackson, Treacy, Amiss, NOD, M.Johnson, N.Erasmus, Chapman, Dudley, M.Reid, Simpson, Voss, Mcvee


You can’t possibly believe the Hawks group has more development than the other two?

Take out the first 6 from GC the rest of them how are those guys at this point of their career ahead of our group? I'd pick all of our group ahead of those guys. I'd give you the same 6 for Freo including Murphy Reid. If your going to make comparisons at least have 1 group CLEARLY ahead of the others when that is not the case.

 

[AlwaysHawks15]

They just ran a total root in trade period.

List just went backwards.

Just showed they can't be trusted in delivering on comitments.

Don't see too many players under contract returning phone calls or having dinner with Sammy in the near future.

Thats the reality right now.

Hilarious post. Club is really gonna struggle replacing 2 depth players and a midfielder with poor skills. Whatever will we do?. Day plays a full season and McKenzie steps into the Worpel role were already better. You probably know this already but your hellbent on trolling so we don't talk about the rabble you go for.

 

[Shueygod]

Take out the first 6 from GC the rest of them how are those guys at this point of their career ahead of our group? I'd pick all of our group ahead of those guys. I'd give you the same 6 for Freo including Murphy Reid. If your going to make comparisons at least have 1 group CLEARLY ahead of the others when that is not the case.

If you take out the best 6 youngsters from Gold Coast they no longer have a clearly better group of youngsters…. I agree.

I struggle to see the point you’re making though.

 

[AlwaysHawks15]

A jack Gunston form slump away from missing finals

Lewis and Dear missed more than half the year. There not going to be any better with Full pre seasons? It's always the usual suspects when it comes to bagging Hawthorn. Same 4-5 posters without fail. Never factual just talking rubbish to make themselves feel better.

 

[AlwaysHawks15]

Over half the top 10 in the B&F were 28 or older including both your best and fairest and leading goal kicker.

9th in average age, hardly old is it? Smack bang in the middle. Lucky we didn't get that 30 year old of yours than ay? Would have really pushed us over the edge.

 

[ReturningHawk]

Interesting, the initial point I made and reiterated was that teams around the Hawks have more internal development.

Hawthorn do have a bunch of 30yo key players in comparison to the teams I named.

You brought up your “young core” but are unwilling to compare that to similar teams?

Is it because you agree that the Hawks young core doesn’t stack up and thus they need/ed to trade in a midfielder to help them compete?

Weddle, Dear, Watson, Ward, MacKenzie, Butler, MacDonald, Ginnivan, Day, Newcombe, D’Ambrossio
Vs

Anderson, Rowell, Humphrey, Walter, Read, Mac Andrew, Davies, Graham, Moyle, Lombard, Rogers, JUH, Jeffrey, 2x top 5 picks

Vs

Serong, Young, Jackson, Treacy, Amiss, NOD, M.Johnson, N.Erasmus, Chapman, Dudley, M.Reid, Simpson, Voss, Mcvee


You can’t possibly believe the Hawks group has more development than the other two?

For some reason you include spuds like Erasmus and Dudley, but not Hawks Key position first round picks Mraz and McCabe going beautifully in the VFL, Max Ramsden also 23 years old and looks a great Ruck.

 

[Shueygod]

For some reason you include spuds like Erasmus and Dudley, but not Hawks Key position first round picks Mraz and McCabe going beautifully in the VFL, Max Ramsden also 23 years old and looks a great Ruck.

My list was copied from a Hawks poster a couple of posts earlier.

 

[ReturningHawk]

Over half the top 10 in the B&F were 28 or older including both your best and fairest and leading goal kicker.

An Essendon supporter throwing shade on another club’s B&F winner right now. It’s simply too good to be true.

 

[WesternSydneyHawk]

2018 burns deep apparently.

Apparently a bit like 1991 and 2015 does for you?

 

[catman2006]

I do worry about Day shown patches of being a very good player, but the navicular bone is the hardest bone to heal for an AFL player due to lack of blood flow, Hawks need to be extra sure its healed even if it means he misses large part of the season.

 

[Harro59]

You would think they are quite close, the only issue for mine would be the midfield. Getting Day back fit and firing and remaining so is the key. The loss of Worpel will hurt their depth.

 

[HairyO]

You would think they are quite close, the only issue for mine would be the midfield. Getting Day back fit and firing and remaining so is the key. The loss of Worpel will hurt their depth.

MacKenzie way more upside. With a fully fit team Worpel likely misses out. Especially with Butler recovered.

The bigger question is what do we do with Maginness.