Opinion 2026 wish list

[Agent Smith]

1. A premiership cup.
2. See point 1.

 

[Simon Crawshay]

1. Massimo to recapture his 2024 form. I think we forgot how good and influential he was last year.

2. Gunners to keep his Indian Summer going and to stay healthy and put together another 60 goal season (also for selfish reasons as I love to watch this guy do his thing)

3. Some more grunt in the midfield. We won't take the next step until we can match the likes of Brisbane and Geelong in the middle.

4. Day to stay healthy (surely he is due some luck)

5. Lewis to have an uninterrupted run at a pre season to set himself up for a big 2026

6. A decent draw for once!

 

[Leather Poisoning]

2025 showed us exactly where we are as a club. No doubt about it - we are square in the top 4. Smashed Collingwood in the back end of the season and dealt with Adeliade very easily in the final. Clearly better than those two. But Brisbane beat us by 5 goals and so did Geelong. These are the teams we need to overtake.

My wish list for next year would be:
1. Beat geelong in a final. And to be there in person.
2. A couple of 100 point wins where we really beat up on the minnows. They're just so much fun to watch.
3. Win the first 8 games

 

[SpanishBrowne]

1. Beat geelong in a final. And to be there in person.

This x10. Screw easter monday.
Smash em by 5 goals+ in a final despite them getting in-game free passes for throwing, htb, out on the full, and whatever else they buy off.

Will also add: 4. Top 4 finish.

 

[Hawkspot]

Day, Lewis, and Dear to be fit and healthy for the whole season.

Mackenzie to take two steps forward, nail himself in to our best 23.

Watson to kick 50.

A fast forward flanker, capable of getting the ball out the back more often. We’re limited by our lack of line breaking pace up the ground, and CJ fumbles every time he is in a position to do it.

 

[Manila_Hawk]

2025 showed us exactly where we are as a club. No doubt about it - we are square in the top 4. Smashed Collingwood in the back end of the season and dealt with Adeliade very easily in the final. Clearly better than those two. But Brisbane beat us by 5 goals and so did Geelong. These are the teams we need to overtake.

My wish list for next year would be:
1. Beat geelong in a final. And to be there in person.
2. A couple of 100 point wins where we really beat up on the minnows. They're just so much fun to watch.
3. Win the first 8 games

(3) will be tough. Finishing in the top 6 means that we will get a tougher draw (and lots of screaming here on BF)

 

[Nugett]

1. A new and improved midfield
2. 4 quarter efforts
3. Dear to have a break out season where he isn’t subbed out for a vast majority of his games. Plays every single game. Wins the coleman
4. Day to be fully fit and injury free. Wins the norm smith.
5 Lewis injury free
6 new player debuts
7. No media leaks of who Sam is having coffee with until trade week.
8. Gunners get a another 12 month extension
9. The club break its membership record again
10. The move to Dingley proves successful

 

[Faraway Hawk]

1. Stop Dangerfield every time we play the Cats.

 

[hawksfan71]

Geelong were super well rested no wonder the old campaigner had so much energy!
Wish list
1. Merret or someone as good as him
2. Will Day to be injury free for whole season
3.CJ to learn how to play and not run around in circles orr just move aside for someone that can play
3.Finish Top 4

But the most important thing to me is the same thing every year and that's to beat the cats Easter Monday (at least)! We did it 3 years ago!

!

1. Stop Dangerfield every time we play the Cats.

 

[Walshawk]

1. Day, Dear and Lewis to play 20+ games
2. Watson to find some consistency
3. Massimo back to 2024 from
4. Merrett and/or Trac.

 

[FB19]

A debutant!

 

[FB19]

Focus on a few players:
Lewis a full season
Sicily uninjured
CJ gone
Amon to the wing and Massimo to a back pocket, see him as more defensive could be Taylor Duryea

15

Taylor Duryea

Age

34

Ht

181cm

Wt

81kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

16.0

4star

K

10.7

4star

HB

5.3

4star

M

5.3

5star

T

2.1

4star

No current season stats available

D

16.0

4star

K

9.6

4star

HB

6.4

4star

M

4.6

5star

T

1.8

4star

with a better leg
Day uninjured off half back
Chol more ruck time
Gunston to be given another clock to wind back
Mraz to debut
Weddle to roam
McCabe to be locked into one position
Butler to stay and become best 22
Watson to kick 50+
Dear to kick 30+
Ramsden to play 10+ games on form
BMac to play 10+ games on form
Significant development for Matt Hill and Jamie uhr-Henry

 

[Roddy]

Currently 2nd favourite for next year’s flag. And that's before trade week. I find that very interesting...

 

[MasterSamurai]

Currently 2nd favourite for next year’s flag. And that's before trade week. I find that very interesting...

Mate, most in the industry including Oppo coaches believe hawks are a strong unit. Our prelim was in hindsight, something we needed for the fire to burn as we also seemed to run out of gas after halftime. Get Day and one more A grader mid and we become even harder to deal with. Just need to get to top 4 at the stopagges , it's where opposition have had our measure.

 

[Hawk88]

Midfield depth of any sort

Lions were able to get hold of Geelong because they bat so deep in there. It didn't matter that Clug was tagged the first half because they get you elsewhere (Bailey and Ashcroft)

Neale
Clug
Dunkley
Ashcroft
Ashcroft
Bailey
Rayner

We have nowhere near this depth

You compare this to the Midfield we had in our threepeat also

Mitchell
Hodge
Lewis
Silk
Shiels
Smith

We need a lot more talent in this area to win a premiership

 

[Mitchell Madness]

Embrace the hate and go on with it. Tackle to hurt. Cop the suspensions if they come, but we get bullied in tackles. The teams who have our measure grind us down and hurt us, return the favour

Bring back the Hollywood hawks. It may come with hate, but when the team was having fun they played with amazing connection. This season we got wins, but we're far from runaway victors

 

[MightyHawks]

Currently 2nd favourite for next year’s flag. And that's before trade week. I find that very interesting...

Brisbane should obviously be fav for 2026 flag -

But of the other preliminary finalists, Pies and Cats have question marks over some older players - do they have another year in them, so objectively we probably should be 2nd fav.

But that doesn't actually mean anything - doesn't help us get an extra win anywhere.

If we don't have a good first 6 rounds then we'll be sliding down those odds.

And if the Pies and Cats start next year well then those questions will be quickly answered.

 

[killerspud]

Chol to build his tank so he can play more as a back up ruck (if they go with five on the bench)

for us to play three tall forwards and three small forwards

For McKenzie to become a regular 23

for us to play three tall defenders and at least two small defenders so we don't get pantsed by teams ike the cats and lions with three good small forwards

 

[Mushie]

For the handbags to be umpired like they were in the second half of the GF. Almost fairly. Which of course they could not handle.

Everything else will take care of itself.

 

[MrBeefSeven]

I do wonder if we would consider doing what Port did with Rozee and shifting him to half back, but it's not as if we're bereft of good distributors off half back.

I'd definitely like to see Amon moved back to the wing. We have plenty of good kicks back there now.

In 2023 we were 7th in the league for average total clearance differential (2nd for centre clearances)
In 2024 we were 6th in the league for average clearance differential (5th for centre clearances)
In 2025 we were 16th (13th for centre bounces)

We need all the help in the middle we can get. I think people forget that our midfield was struggling mostly in 2025, before that it was not our weakest area. Will Day barely got on the park this year. Coincidence? I think not.

Why would we move him back to a position where we are the most stacked and is easier to play? There are plenty of other guys who can play HB. I thought that was the point of getting Battle and TB.

What we need from Day is healthy feet and ankles. If we have that then chuck him straight in the guts. The idea that he'd be any more protected playing off HB is silly.

(oh yeah and if I remember right he also got hella ankle injuries back when he actually was playing HB)

 

[Dragz]

For the handbags to be umpired like they were in the second half of the GF. Almost fairly. Which of course they could not handle.

Everything else will take care of itself.

TBF - in the 2nd half, Brisbane players stopped holding onto Geelong players. Be interesting to know if that was a coaching directive or a player driven directive. Geelong players are well drilled in getting those free kicks. Throw those arms out, make it look obvious, and the umpire will pay it.

 

[BlueWaterHawk]

I'm hoping to see steady improvement and perhaps a debut for Noah Mraz. I really liked what I saw of him pre-injury, it's imperative that he's ready to replace Barrass in the future.

 

[hardway]

Weddle to become a top 5 player in the competition.

We need something special to happen to close the gap on the Lions and Suns.

 

[fairdinks]

high hopes for Mraz and I really want Ward and Frenchie to reach their potential in 2026.

I have concerns over McCabe and Bailey Mac ever being more than useful backups, so we do need someone to come from the clouds in terms of improvement.

 

[Dewyyyyy]

high hopes for Mraz and I really want Ward and Frenchie to reach their potential in 2026.

I have concerns over McCabe and Bailey Mac ever being more than useful backups, so we do need someone to come from the clouds in terms of improvement.

McCabe is unbelievably talented, he’ll make it. Where is a good question considering he’s shown good signs all over the park and is a prototype for talent.

BMac is interesting. It is hard being behind Impey and Amon.