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How close are Hawthorn to a flag?

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Ask Jason Dunstall

Dermott Brereton
John Platten
Ben Allan
Andrew Collins
Scott Maginess
Tim Hargreaves
Anthony Condon
Stephen Lawrence
Dean Anderson
Andrew Gowers
Jason Pritchard
Chris Langford
Gary Ayres
Harford
Luke Mcpharlin
Paul Hudson
Rayden Tallis
Adrian Cox
Darren Jarman
Peter Everitt
Dr Phil
 
A fit Day and Lewis and I think we can win the flag.

Massive IFs given their previous injury history.

Will also need Brisbane to shit the bed but that goes for everyone. They're far too good.
 

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Have the Hawks improved their list this trade period?

Lost two players who played all three finals.

Jaith and Worpel.

So to stay at the same level that's two kids that will need to step in and up into the best 23.

Draftees likely won't impact in 2026 unless they chase mature age recruits.

Lions, Swans and Saints all made significant improvements to their lists. Two of those teams will be gunning for a top 8 finish.

As will the Bulldogs.
 
These guys are the future of the club - it is pretty crazy how young they are and many are already key players.

Wiz and Calsher are 2nd year players.
Weddle, Mackenzie and Hustwaite are 3rd year players.
Newcombe, Ward, Butler and MacDonald are 4th year players.
Even Will Day is only a 6th year player.

When all these guys get to 100 games look out.
 
Obeanie1 said:
Have the Hawks improved their list this trade period?

Lost two players who played all three finals.

Jaith and Worpel.

So to stay at the same level that's two kids that will need to step in and up into the best 23.

Draftees likely won't impact in 2026 unless they chase mature age recruits.

Lions, Swans and Saints all made significant improvements to their lists. Two of those teams will be gunning for a top 8 finish.

As will the Bulldogs.
Click to expand...

Of the top 10 teams (based on H&A)

Adelaide - No list improvement - Midfield still weak

Geelong - Worpel (Is it a list improvement? I'm not sure, arguably was one of our worst in the prelim but a solid player). Ruck is still an area of weakness with two geriatric ruckmen going into 2026.

Brisbane - Improved their list. Allen is a good inclusion. Draper I'm less sold on. Ah Chee and Starcevich are big losses but can be covered with their incredible depth.

Collingwood - No list improvement.

GWS - If Clarry stays at his current level - no list improvement. If he returns to top form, surely they're up there with Brisbane from a talent perspective.

Freo - No list improvement.

GC - Big list improvement.

Hawthorn - No list improvement - Midfield still weak

Bulldogs - No list improvement - Backline still weak

Sydney - Big list improvement.

Actually ended up being a pretty quiet trade period for most of the big players. Northern clubs have done well and will go in stronger.
 
PowerfulPies2023 said:
Zach Merret even that good these days? I don't know.
Click to expand...

He's good but he's not 3 (or even 4) 1st rounders good.

That's what you pay for a top 5-10 player.

Merrett is more of your 20-30th.
 

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So from their prelim team.

Worpel becomes Day - Huge improvement but injury risk a concern.

Jiath becomes Morrison - improvement but meh.

Dear becomes Lewis/Gunston? With the new extra sub does Reeves replace Chol allowing them to play Dear/Lewis?

Depth a real concern.
 
Vindicater said:
So from their prelim team.

Worpel becomes Day - Huge improvement but injury risk a concern.

Jiath becomes Morrison - improvement but meh.

Dear becomes Lewis/Gunston? With the new extra sub does Reeves replace Chol allowing them to play Dear/Lewis?

Depth a real concern.
Click to expand...

I think our depth is fine.

Blanck is a serviceable and ready made KPD. Mraz is very highly rated at the Hawks and will likely take over from Barrass in the years to come.
Maginess/Mackenzie could easily step into a midfield role. Finn physically more ready. Mackenzie the far greater talent.
Reeves is probably one of the better second ruckman in the comp. Ready made to play AFL.
4 strong KPF choices. One of Lewis/Dear/Gunston/Chol will probably miss.

I think it's a solid Best 30 or so.
 
LionsOrDieTrion said:
They’re a Zac Merrett type away.
Click to expand...
Essendon did the competition a favour by not letting Merrett go.

Gun player with the ball winning and kicking skills to be excellent in any team.

I do feel though it was an incredibly short sighted list building decision for them internally. 30 yr old who is a gun but is 30...
 
Disastrous trade period for Hawthorn. Needed a big name midfielder to move the needle and have any hope of keeping up with the QLD teams. Instead their midfield got weaker losing Worpel and can Gunston really be relied on to kick 50+ again? Feels like this trade period was their only chance to improve for next year and sneak a flag before their older players like Gunston and Sicily really fall off. They fumbled that. Now they’ll likely be trying to rebuild while Tassie is taking all of the draft picks. So not very close to a flag at all.
 
SSSSSS said:
I think our depth is fine.

Blanck is a serviceable and ready made KPD. Mraz is very highly rated at the Hawks and will likely take over from Barrass in the years to come.
Maginess/Mackenzie could easily step into a midfield role. Finn physically more ready. Mackenzie the far greater talent.
Reeves is probably one of the better second ruckman in the comp. Ready made to play AFL.
4 strong KPF choices. One of Lewis/Dear/Gunston/Chol will probably miss.

I think it's a solid Best 30 or so.
Click to expand...
Yeah depth is fine overall, it’s a very even list. The issue is lack of truly elite talent in the midfield beyond Newcombe and Day. Still a lot of growth left for Ward, MacKenzie and Butler.

On that basis just can’t quite see us truly challenging Brisbane, the Suns and whoever else emerges next season.

Have underestimated us many times before though and hope I have again.
 
Vindicater said:
So from their prelim team.

Worpel becomes Day - Huge improvement but injury risk a concern.

Jiath becomes Morrison - improvement but meh.

Dear becomes Lewis/Gunston? With the new extra sub does Reeves replace Chol allowing them to play Dear/Lewis?

Depth a real concern.
Click to expand...

Depth is absolutely fine.

It's the elite end that will be the concern.

Our 'depth' got us to a preliminary final being down by a point at half time.

It's the elite end of the list that couldn't get us further.

That's the biggest worry here. We didn't improve it during the trade period like we'd planned.
 

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Maxabillions said:
Disastrous trade period for Hawthorn. Needed a big name midfielder to move the needle and have any hope of keeping up with the QLD teams. Instead their midfield got weaker losing Worpel and can Gunston really be relied on to kick 50+ again? Feels like this trade period was their only chance to improve for next year and sneak a flag before their older players like Gunston and Sicily really fall off. They fumbled that. Now they’ll likely be trying to rebuild while Tassie is taking all of the draft picks. So not very close to a flag at all.
Click to expand...

Essendon made themselves worse for 10 years, and us worse for 12 months by retaining their captain who doesn't want to be there. It's 'galvanising' and a 'line in the sand moment' though apparently.

In hindsight, we should have done 1 of 2 things.

1. Recognised we weren't going to be able to bring in anybody of worth, and as a result fight harder to keep James Worpel.
2. Had a genuine back-up plan for when the Merrett trade inevitably fell through, and look at stop-gap options in the short term (Steele, Treloar as examples), if we knew Worpel was 100% gone.

Now we'll simply be banking on internal improvement. We can do it, but it's a much harder ask.

Brisbane, Geelong and the Suns already feel like the top 3, and everybody else is playing for 4th down.
 
Obeanie1 said:
Have the Hawks improved their list this trade period?

Lost two players who played all three finals.

Jaith and Worpel.

So to stay at the same level that's two kids that will need to step in and up into the best 23.

Draftees likely won't impact in 2026 unless they chase mature age recruits.

Lions, Swans and Saints all made significant improvements to their lists. Two of those teams will be gunning for a top 8 finish.

As will the Bulldogs.
Click to expand...
Day, Dear and McKenzie all didn't play in all finals. CJ only played because Morrison was injured who had the wing spot all year so CJ is easily covered. Worpel depends on how much McKenzie can emerge as the player we think he can be. Ward should get better guys like Watson etc. There's enough internal growth for us to be ok.
 

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How close are Hawthorn to a flag?

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