2010 AFL Season Preview - Hawthorn

By Allblack
Now to look at Hawthorn, a team who according to most last year underperformed and missed the eight after winning the premiership the year before. There has been a bit of player turnover and this year will be an interesting one to see if they have covered their gaps enough to climb the ladder and challenge again.

Their backline is a big worry. The shortage of quality KP defenders lead them to trade aggressively and land Gibson from North. At 189cm he is not their answer but he is a good player. Gilham seems to be st6ruggling to get his body right and Croad has given up on his ever being right. Murphy is the Hawthorn equivilient of Henneman. They have Schoenmakers who looks like a good player in the making but still young and probably a couple of years away from a genuine impact. They have good running defenders though and like to set up from down back. Ellis, Guerra, Hodge and Birchall do this well. Brown will be interesting this year after being shopped around in the off season and hard to believe he could play KP again at his size.

Their midfield is an interesting one. In their premiership year they played as well as a unit as any team I can remember. They hunted in packs and won the battle most weeks. Last year they played selfishly and makes me wonder if losing Crawford wasn’t a much bigger loss than most expected. Still there is class there and the recruiting of Burgoyne is a good one. He will add that run and can get in and under if needed. His body is the only question mark. They developed some good younger players in Muston, Sheils and Moss. Osborne, Mitchell and Bateman were solid if a little down on previous years form. It was amazing to see Jordan Lewis being shopped around to Port as I think he is the most important player in the Hawks midfield along with Sewell. I think Rioli may play more mid roles this year after the recruitment of Hooper to play small forward. I think Tuck and Young still have improvement left which leaves them with a midfield that could only be described as quality as long as it performs to its abaility.

The forward line never really worked last year. Every team in the 8 outscored them last year which is an indictment on a team that has Franklin, Roughead and Rioli amongst its talent. They seemed obsessed with playing Franklin up the field last year which was a luxury they couldn’t afford. They tried Brown up forward which on occasion looked alright but he is not the answer. Dowler showed a little bit but he has only ever showed a little bit. Morton has promise but hasn’t delivered. Hooper joining the team is an interesting one as it smacks a little bit of desperation. He is there to try and relieve the pressure on Rioli but I would think someone on their last chance who wouldn’t even turn up regularly at training to a club who first threw him a lifeline probably isn’t someone you want around your team. This team has enough ego already.

The rucks are dire. Someone mentioned Port having the worst rucks in the league. I don’t think Hawthorn are far away. Bailey is out again, doubtful he will ever be right. Taylor is not good enough to be a first ruck but he will be one again. Renouf has massive question marks both on output and attitude. Skipper was pulled in as back up but he struggled to get a game at the doggies who are crying out for talls.

The coach is hard to read. He has provided the blueprint most clubs seem to follow now in list development, he has won a premiership but still goes largely unrated. He lost the plot in the final game of the year when he let emotion get the better of him. He needs them to bounce back this year and he is going to have to go deeper into his bag of tricks to make it happen.

The Hawks should be a top 8 team and I think this year they can be back there. I have them finishing around the 6-7 mark which is probably not as high as they would like to go but for all the talent on their list they still have some pretty big holds. Mostly down back and in the ruck. It is going to be hard work at hawthorn this year.

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Posted 25 January 10 in Important Articles