So we are both clear, Hawks rebuild started in 2004 when they got Buddy, Roughhead and Lewis. Yes they were lucky to win one in 2008 ahead of time, then taking another 6 years to win another one
You're genuinely going to sit here and tell me that the Hawks started their run for being successful in 2010 onwards at the end of 2004?
They didn't expect to win by 2008 early on in the Clarkson era, but they knew exactly what they were sitting on at the end of the 2007 season. They only made 3 draft selections, one of them Cyril and the last one a then 27-year old Dew. No trades, nothing fancy, just their standard picks after a finals finish.
As you are well aware, rebuilds, could take 3-6 years before making finals. Once you make the finals, premiership windows generally only last 5 years unless you are at the top of the tree with list management
Maybe in the Terry Wallace school of list mangling, where he floods the airways with empirically-observed figures laced with info that excuses his tenure at Richmond, but out in the real world we consider mitigating and promoting factors that may have influenced events.
The reality now is that rebuilds take 2-4 years depending on the state of the list and the current list management environment (concessions/establishment phases) and last maybe 4 in terms of being a premiership threat if your list stays relatively healthy.
Every list is going to have talent on it, every list is going to have duds. Every club is going to make mistakes, but there are moments where opportunity and circumstances offer you a chance to hit the accelerator, and we're in one of those right now.
The expansion period has made some clubs gun shy about the back end of the draft, and previously the Pies, Geelong and the Hawks, now us and the Dogs, are making great use of it. The GWS surplus of talent makes it easier to acquire partially-developed talent on a dime if you can absorb the odd misfire.
The next two off-seasons are super-important for the re-birth of this club, and I expect us to go really hard after that and push for top 4. Murphy and co should be around for that, and if we don't quite make it, we'll still have acquisition opportunities if we quickly identify the decent players that don't quite work for us and shuffle them on.
What's more, with the free agency change, there's an even bigger chance to top-up the senior core. You might see them as mercenaries, but not every free agency move necessarily winds up being a brilliant one for club and player.