I've read a few hawks fans dismiss the loss of a first round draft pick with the old "lots of clubs misuse them anyway". Well lots of companies and governments waste money too, that doesn't mean that money isn't valuable, but the value of it is related to its usage. I also hear talk about free agency which makes me wonder why Hawthorn didn't wait for it to start in earnest.
Hawthorn's midfield is fairly slow, and even with O'Meara, it lacks a bit of depth. You've got O'Meara, Mitchell, Shiels, Langford and Burgoyne. Maybe Smith but he shifts between midfield and forwardline. Burgoyne is inconsistent and is nearly 35. Langford is inconsistent and isn't a great kick. Shiels is a good depth player but needs more support. Mitchell is a very good inside midfielder but lacks a bit of pace and polish with his kicking, and until O'Mears gets recovers from injury, so does he.
They gave away two picks last year that could have been used to stock up on midfielders and this early pick could have been used to bring in some talent. Given Hawthorn built its premierships on the back of having many early picks, I find the apathy towards losing draft picks fairly strange.
Gary Buckenara said on fox footy that Hawthorn decided to trade up to get Lewis, so the club knows the value of early picks. The O'Meara trade runs against that philosophy. In general, the best trades are trades for need, but its dangerous to trade for midfielders given they're generally fairly expensive. Richmond are getting criticised for trading for Prestia, but the pick was not unprotected, Richmond didn't trade away two other picks to get him and Prestia's injury issues aren't nearly as bad. That said, the jury is rightly out on that trade. And the jury is right to be out on the O'Meara trade.
It's also ideal to trade when you have most of your list developed, but it's clear now that Hawthorn overestimated how developed its list is.
All this proves is that the club is made up of humans and like any well run side, like New England, Barcelona, Bayern Munich etc they make mistakes.