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Can Hawthorn succeed while ignoring the elite end of the draft? - Part 2

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Day looked great. Nice composure, and a really good long kick.

Not sure why Hawthorn are wasting cap space on a bunch of dour ex GWS number 1’s in Scully, Patton and Frost though?
Frost has been consistently good this year, Scully cooked.
 
100%...he’s an absolute spud and has been for two years now...useless.

You can throw in the captain ben Stratton.

Tim O’Brien another.

Ceglar another.

Scully another.

The definition of average footballers
It is not a normal season, teams can't even practice properly, everything is uncertain... Bad night for Hawks, but they've shown some good stuff too this year .. never as bad as it seems
 

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It is not a normal season, teams can't even practice properly, everything is uncertain... Bad night for Hawks, but they've shown some good stuff too this year too... never as bad as it seems

Against Brisbane at their home ground right after the season was suspended and also v a hapless Richmond.

Otherwise they’ve been middling.
 
I bet someone writes off Hawthorn in the next 10 minutes or so and they come out and beat the Pies with a big second half.
The patching up with washed up cast offs starting to take its toll
Do Hawthorn just blow it up and start again?
Still no.
Hawks kicked 3.9.27. Their lowest score under Clarkson.

Hawks are slowly becoming something they hate: A low scoring Ross Lyon side.

Clarko is given 2 choices

1. die a hero

2. Live long enough to be a Villian.
 
Easily our worst performance of the year. Probably worse than our worse performance last year too. Poor skills, poor effort (excluding parts of the last quarter once the game was cooked). When your debutant looks like the sharpest and most composed player you have on the ground, things are not going well. Even Wingard looked super sloppy on the few occasions we managed to get the ball down that part of the ground. If we'd played that badly against GWS last week, it could have easily been a 100+ loss. We were lucky Pies undermanned and somewhat inaccurate after kicking straight in the first quarter - a fully fit Pies team would have won by much more. Can see our record at that ground stretching to 0-6 after next week against Melbourne. Only positive is that 3-3 after playing Cats, GWS, Pies, Richmond, Brisbane isn't a disaster, but the manner of tonight's loss is a massive concern. We were lacking Impey, Burgoyne, Scrimshaw, Lewis and Patton from what is likely our best team on paper, but by the team all of those guys are available again, the season may well be shot, and you can't really on having your theoretical best 22 available each week in order to win games. Worpel going backwards this year has meant that despite bringing back Mitchell, we still lack depth in the middle, and this is costing us games at the moment.
 
Puopolo. -19 metres gained.

What is it he provides that nobody else can again?

I'd assumed he was done when he was dropped the other week but Clarkson went with him again after Breust's injury. Why someone like Jackson Ross who was the leading goal kicker at Box Hill last year (and maybe third in the VFL) hasn't got a gong is beyond me. It's not 2015 anymore. Puopolo's had a terrific career but the game has passed him now.

Puopolo, Scully and Henderson at a minimum need to be replaced. Ross, Jiath and Glass could play similar roles. O'Brien has regressed at a rate of knots but with Lewis and Patton injured, my guess is that he stays although a lot of Hawthorn supporters I know would love to see Jeka play. The issue for Hawthorn at the moment is the older players that are past it. I'd rather lose by 10 goals getting experience into kids than the floundering, nearly dead fish that got served tonight.
 

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They’re going to be hit with a raft of retirements (or ‘retirements’) very soon.

The problem with bringing in players in their prime year after year is you usually have them for 5-6 years and a few of them (Henderson, Scully, Frawley etc) don’t look like they’ve got much left. O’Brien seems to have been around forever and hasn’t hit great heights.

Have no idea what the youth on their list that wasn’t playing tonight is like but they’re going to need a lot coming through to cover the loss of experience. Would push out Puopolo and some of the above ASAP and find out what the others are made of.
 
Is it time for a change at the Hawks?
Do they need a new voice?
Does Clarko need a new challenge at another club?

I doubt it. Clarkson has risen twice - 2008 and 2013. I wouldn’t put it past him to do it again. Whether they need to change the recruiting approach is another question imo. He can clearly motivate and coach a side.

People talk about comparisons with Sheedy but he built a great side in the mid 80s, pinched another flag in the early 90s with a very talented young side, and built another great side in the early 2000s. Between those years there was talk he was past it and he came back and won flags. Clarkson is obviously a highly adept coach at his core and if you look at history of coaching, there’s nothing to say he’s necessarily past it.

As for continually playing “favourites“ that others think are past it and can’t see the value of, you couldn’t get more Sheedy lol. Now he’s even weighing in to get rules changed etc. There’s some genuine similarities.
 
Will Day is honestly their best recruit of the last 5 years by an absolute mile. Far better value at pick 11 than what Hawthorn gave up for O'Meara.

Now is the time for them to start drafting, but next year will be as compromised and it gets.

Don't they have an academy prospect? They will probably have to bid on him with their first pick this year.
 

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Will Day is honestly their best recruit of the last 5 years by an absolute mile. Far better value at pick 11 than what Hawthorn gave up for O'Meara.

Now is the time for them to start drafting, but next year will be as compromised and it gets.

Don't they have an academy prospect? They will probably have to bid on him with their first pick this year.
Not if we finish bottom 6.
 
Hawthorn have badly overrated their list. They have been trading as if they were still in the window. They have a few good young players but not nearly enough. For years they have been denying the problems of an aging mass of players but its beginning to hit home. In 2 years time the team they have out on the field will be completely different. It'll probably take a few more losses and then Hawks will really start to bring a lot more younger, inexperienced guys into the side. I don't think they'll be leaving the bottom 6 for a while. They'll get worse before they get better.
 

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Can Hawthorn succeed while ignoring the elite end of the draft? - Part 2

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