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AFL 2017: New-era Hawks take time

Michael Gleeson

Post-Mitchell/Lewis Hawthorn will plainly take time to gel. The question is how much time and whether a season will slip away before connections are made.

One emotional game can shape a season but perhaps not define it. Saturday night's game does not at this stage point to where Hawthorn will go but it does point to what Hawthorn need to do.

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They played on Saturday night like a side feeling each other out. The inclusions –Tom Mitchell, Jaeger O'Meara and Ty Vickery – were adequate but not yet comfortable. Mitchell had 37 touches and was industrious, O'Meara played like someone out of the game for two years and better for playing and Vickery is establishing his role.

There were 850 games missing from their team without Luke Hodge, Mitchell or Lewis on the field. They could not and did not expect things to be the same. They brought about this list change because they knew it was the change they needed to have.

"I think Hawthorn is going to struggle without [Mitchell], he's the step one, he's building block one in Hawthorn's game and they haven't got it now," former champion Dermott Brereton said on SEN.

"They've got to learn to play without him, they have to obviously, but it might be a bigger ordeal for them to learn how to play without him, than perhaps coach and coaching staff first thought."

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The most fundamental change is to the game. Hawthorn looked to be beaten for leg speed on Saturday night. They are not slower by foot for losing Mitchell and Lewis – they might even be quicker by foot without them – but they are slower for losing Bradley Hill.

More to the point they looked slower because their ball movement was slower. Their ball movement was slower because players who intuitively know where to go – and when – and to dispose of the ball without fault, were not there. The ball movement was consequently more stilted but it was also sloppy.

Hawthorn turned the ball over more than has been their custom and they were punished for it by Essendon. They gave up 31 points from turnovers which is their third highest number in the last 50 games.

"They've still got some great players in there, but the way the play their game is reliant on we've got the ball, you can't get it off us," Terry Wallace also said on SEN.

"But it's reliant on them winning the ball first ... with Sam Mitchell there it's a pressure ball, it goes to him. Under pressure he doesn't miss [the target] and straight away they play their game. That's not going to happen any more."

The Hawks' issue  was they were poor forward of the ball. Cyril Rioli was injured early and laboured throughout. Luke Breust and Jack Gunston could not find the ball and Ty Vickery was learning his place. Jarryd Roughead was willing but having not played in a year he was finding the rhythm – much like Jaeger O'Meara was after two years out.

A further question at Hawthorn is more philosophical. How many personnel losses can Hawthorn sustain before it begins to bite?

A change of president, no CEO, a long-term consiglieri gone, a conga line of assistant coaches in charge of other teams, and veteran champions managed out of the team. A tipping point has to be reached.

They might not have reached that point yet but the next month ahead – Adelaide, Gold Coast away, Geelong and West Coast – is going to test how quickly they can find synergy among their new players .

Isaac Smith issued a word of caution about hasty judgment.

"It's only one game, and I think two of the three grand finals we won, we lost Round 1," Smith said.

"I don't think it's a huge issue. It's still four points and Round 10 is four points, so we're still pretty confident in the team we've got."

"You have six months to try and win the first game of the year and we stuffed it up," he said.

"But there are 21 games to go. A little bit went wrong but we think a lot went right ... a lot of our key indicators we ticked off.

"I think a lot of it was our finishing," he said. 

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