We had a couple of poor years and traded very well.
We didnt spend 10 years at the bottom ruining the careers of countless numbers of players.
We didnt spend 10 years at the bottom ruining the careers of countless numbers of players.
Quit acting like only poorly run teams rebuild.
You're deluded if you think you can remain where you are now with the likes of Hodge, Burgoyne, Mitchell, Lewis and Gibson coming to the end of their careers pretty soon. I'd compare your situation a lot to Geelong's in 2012/13 where they began looking like a shadow of the premiership teams and the veterans started giving it away/getting worse each year. The only thing saving Geelong has been Selwood and now Dangerfield, with those two pretty much being able to carry a team around them that is pretty average. Plenty of people were speaking highly of all these Geelong kids when they were surrounded by Ablett, Bartel, Kelly, Scarlett, Corey, Chapman etc, but many of them have been found out to be pretty average footballers since then.
Hawthorn don't have a Selwood type that can carry the midfield with the veterans gone or not being what they once were, and it's unlikely there's going to be another Dangerfield out there on the market either. It was pretty obvious to me at least in the semi a few weeks back how Hawthorn is going to fare without the likes of Hodge etc. They were screaming out for some young blokes to step up, and there was hardly anyone who did so.
Yes, O'Meara is probably going to come, but he hasn't played footy in ages and the reports about his knee don't make for great reading. Mitchell nominating the Hawks would surprise me to be honest.

