We seem to be learning that Hodge, Mitchell and Hale keep improving despite being of the same age as Kelly and Bartel. Burgoyne gets faster as he gets older, and Roughead was a magic selection in the 2004 draft. The Hawks just win, they have an uncanny ability to always be there to mop up, and their ability to get a hand in, a deflection, a smother, a flibble or any sort of way to intercept the oppositions forays is astounding. But it happens so regularly it's obviously no fluke.
And they lose Franklin to their direct opponent today and miss not a beat at all. The Hawks finals record is frustratingly excellent, and so they are on their way to a 12th flag. Eleven of those in my lifetime, and 10 of those i've been old enough to remember. They are what Collingwood would have been to a person my age in the late 1930's. They are just a great side. Hurts to say, but the proof is in the pudding.