We’re now well used to the “hot take” landscape created by the saturation coverage of contemporary AFL football. But have we yet learned to take it with a grain of salt? Sometimes you wonder.
Take Hawthorn, for example. The Hawks are a pretty comfortable 7-4 and sixth on the ladder at the moment (equal fourth on points). But all it’s taken is consecutive losses to set the alarm bells ringing.
That’s despite those losses being a narrow eight-point defeat in the difficult conditions of Darwin against a vastly-improved Gold Coast, then a five-goal loss to reigning premier Brisbane.
Predictably, with the Hawks having forged a reputation as brash, extroverted exponents of the very hip “Hokball” brand, the overreactions have focused as much on behaviour as form, structure and strategy.
“They became the ‘Hollywood Hawks’ and it was all sexy and all fun,” said Jack Riewoldt on Fox Footy on Monday. ‘But it’s come to a head now, where I think it’s starting to border on immature.”
Is it, though? Or is it exactly the same sort of byplay which, when Hawthorn wins, is lauded as confidence-building and unifying, the difference in interpretation framed purely around how the scoreboard reads on a particular day?
Triple premiership Lion Jonathan Brown said Hawthorn still had “immaturity in the mind and bodies”. “You can’t have boys on grand final day, Sam Mitchell has to turn his boys into men,” he said. Would he have said that if they’d won? Or would the narrative be about youthful enthusiasm knowing no fear being perfectly equipped for the big stage?
One thing for sure is that unless Mitchell has a time machine, he can’t season his team any quicker than the calendar will allow.
It is worth noting, though, that a list which last year was the second-youngest and third least-experienced in the AFL is in 2025 actually 10th and eighth in those same respective categories, no doubt assisted by the arrival of experienced pair Tom Barrass and Josh Battle.
That said, though, two defeats and some relatively uninspiring wins preceding them have brought Hawthorn to a similar juncture as last year; namely, a big MCG clash against Collingwood with a point needing to be made.
Particularly given the next two games on the schedule after Friday evening, the Western Bulldogs and Adelaide, before the Hawks have their mid-season bye in Round 15.
Six of Hawthorn’s seven wins this season have been against sides placed 10th or lower on the ladder. The Hawks have beaten only one team currently in the top eight (GWS) and have lost to three others. Collingwood, top of the table, and with a clutch of stars back in the line-up for the big Friday night clash is perhaps right now an even bigger test than was Brisbane last week.
If that delivers some déjà vu for Hawk supporters, it’s understandable. It might have been later last year, in mid-July, but Hawthorn arrived at its clash against Collingwood having won plenty of games but still with the sceptics unconvinced, the Hawks having beaten up on some weaker teams and been recently thrashed by Geelong.
But to say Hawthorn seized its chance to make a major statement would be selling the impact short. The Hawks in fact beat up on the then reigning premier by a whopping 66 points, ground level forwards Connor Macdonald, Jack Ginnivan, Luke Breust and Nick Watson running amok.
This time, the point needing to be made is that Hawthorn is capable of adapting to a competition having done a lot more homework on just how to close down the Hawks’ ballistic attack and use of open space.
Many of the Hawks’ key performance indicators right now don’t look all that different to the end of that last year, ranking similarly (sixth) for points scored, indeed marginally more efficient when it comes to scores per inside 50.
Hawthorn is applying more defensive pressure on its opponents in 2025 (currently ranked third compared to last year’s 11th), though its differential rankings for contested ball, ground balls and clearances are all well down.
But a lot of basics remain sound. Any slip of standards is more a matter of degrees than the fall off the cliff a mere couple of losses in a row are often now made out to be.
Respected analyst and long-time AFL coach Rodney Eade says any fall-off, however, has more to do with the pressure now being applied to them, which is stifling ball movement somewhat.
“They’re being pressured more than they have in the past; they’re not allowed to get through like they were,” Eade said this week on ESPN’s Footyology Podcast.
“They’re (Hawthorn’s opponents) putting extra numbers around between the arcs, they know they’re going to handball, so it’s getting obvious, and the opposition defenders are coming forward to put pressure on.”
The situation, however, is hardly irretrievable. “I don’t think they should double down, I think they just need to tweak it a little bit,” Eade said. “They need to be less predictable to the opposition.”
Friday night could be the challenge Hawthorn’s campaign needs for a bit of extra kick. Perhaps Collingwood has recognised that at the selection table, too. Because the Magpies “ins” – Darcy Moore, Scott Pendlebury, Steele Sidebottom, Bobby Hill and Lachie Schultz – are as good a group of inclusions as we’re likely to see all season.
Knock that lot over along with the rest of the AFL’s most in-form team, and Hawthorn’s “crisis” will be but another fleeting bit of manufactured controversy, and its flag hopes very much alive.
You can read more of Rohan Connolly’s work at FOOTYOLOGY.
