By Peter Ryan
“I want the players to be able to express themselves, and Chad [Wingard], whether he wants white hair, to have tattoos and wear long-sleeve jumpers, [well] if that is going to give the best chance to feel like himself and give him the best chance to perform at his best then that is up to him. I’m not going to get in his way.” – Sam Mitchell after round one, 2022
These hotshot Hawks are dragging football into the modern age, combining flair and dare with the fundamentals to create a winning formula.
Hawthorn’s Jack Ginnivan was in the thick of the action against his old club, Collingwood.Credit: AF:L Photos via Getty Images
Even if they don’t make finals, their stint banished to the Sunday slots should end next season. They have earned prime-time action.
Since their run of nine wins in 11 matches started in round eight, they have been the AFL’s most miserly team, conceding just 71.9 points a match, and their scores from turnover have increased.
But they are also playing with verve and enthusiasm; as connected on the field as they are when taking post-game selfies.
Jack Ginnivan made his former team, Collingwood, look like young fogeys on Saturday. He is a football disruptor befitting the digital era.
But the 21-year-old provocateur, who won a Collingwood premiership after a night at the track, is not the only brash Hawk reminding anyone still living in football’s Jurassic Park that there is more than one way to be a footballer. The master is teaching his apprentices to “do what you wanna do, be what you wanna be, yeah”.
Nick Watson is an extremely talented pest who was off to the races more than once against the flat-footed Magpies. His locker is next to Ginnivan, who made mention post-match of the burgeoning friendship he and Watson share with numbers 31 (Connor MacDonald, he of the rat-tail) and the tagger Finn Maginness at 32. On Saturday, the three small forwards in that quartet kicked nine goals between them.
It was just the second time the Hawks had kicked 20 goals in a game since 2016. Doing so on such a wet day was like running a track record on a heavy eight.
Will Day’s return has been huge for HawthornCredit: via Getty Images
Ginnivan failed to mention No.35 in the G-row: 18-year-old Calsher Dear, who has played in just one loss since he made his debut – the unlosable defeat to Port Adelaide – or the tight connection he has with Changkuoth Jiath, who “papped” his friend after he kicked his first goal on Saturday. Or Mabior Chol, who, like Ginnivan, feels understood at the Hawks, embraced for who he is, and is performing well as a result.
A small-forward set-up can flourish in the 6-6-6 era, so long as there’s speed to find space, the ball comes out of the middle quickly – as the Hawks are able to do thanks to ruckman Lloyd Meek (a beneficiary of the new ruck rule) – and it is brought to ground consistently. Dear and Chol take care of that.
It’s not all DJ sets and glow sticks at the Hawks, though.
Premiership veterans Luke Breust and Jack Gunston are being given a chance to develop their coaching skills as they prepare for what might lie ahead, and Sam Frost is now as calm an influence off the field as he used to be chaotic on it.
Karl Amon, Massimo D’Ambrosio and Jarman Impey (all recruits) are good ball users off half-back, while Josh Weddle and James Sicily are aerialists who move the ball well. Dylan Moore is all heart and should be All-Australian, while Will Day, Jai Newcombe, Conor Nash and James Worpel are excellent midfielders.
And they tackled hard against the Magpies, with 80 per cent of their attempts sticking.
The only word of caution for Hawthorn spruikers is that Collingwood are not the scalp they once were.
Injuries and age have robbed them of momentum and the flow and connection they once enjoyed with their senior warriors is hanging on by a thread. The absence of key structural players Nathan Murphy, Tom Mitchell and Brody Mihocek has affected those who benefited from their grunt work.
At the end of a brilliant, albeit non-linear, run that started in 2018 and culminated in last year’s flag, they need some cold, hard analysis of their list at season’s end. Ironically, their shift to a new era might be delayed by the crash in draft capital they face as a result of their unexpected drop down the ladder and the Hawks’ rise.
Hotshot Hawthorn have targets on their backs now. They are the flavour of the month in a media environment that sees shooting stars celebrated wildly. They appear brash, given they have not sat in the top eight once since round five, 2022.
The best teams will unpack their mode and hunt their agitators in the games to come against the Crows, Giants and Carlton, and how they cope with that will determine their finals hopes.
Mitchell, however, is coaching a team to win football games.
The rest is up to the individuals. Their growth will be fascinating to watch.
Veteran coaches can get results too, without such drama
Chris Fagan should be in line for coach of the year after getting his Brisbane Lions and himself off the canvas when their 2024 seemed done after round eight’s crushing loss to the Giants.
He has turned the Lions into a club that never gives up. Their win over Sydney was testament to that, with Lachie Neale, Charlie Cameron and Eric Hipwood all quiet, leaving Shadeau Brain and Callum Ah Chee to be the heroes late.
The veteran coach overcame all sorts of adversity in the off-season to lead his team out of the morass and potentially into the top four again. Only the best coaches do that.
Chris Fagan often wears a furrowed brow, but he has led the Lions back into the finalsCredit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
Sydney didn’t lose admirers with their third loss in four games – all four losses this season have been by under a goal.
However, injuries to Dane Rampe, Tom Papley and potentially Will Hayward during the game, while James Rowbottom and Justin McInerney were sidelined have left them vulnerable.
The Swans might have started the season like Vo Rogue, but the end is shaping up to be more like the finish to the 1992 Cox Plate.
It’s a win-loss business Essendon, no matter what anyone says
Essendon’s defensive actions have fallen away since round 12. They are 15th in the league for points against in that time.
They have conceded more points this season than all but four teams.
The two coast-to-coast goals conceded in the second quarter against Adelaide were reminders that, while much has changed under Brad Scott, the Bombers’ road to finals success will be rocky.
The final goal was a calamity, not just in execution but a series of brain fades from experienced players. Dyson Heppell’s calmness was missed.
The club looked at free agency rather than the draft to plug holes, and the jury is still out on that strategy. Ben McKay, Jade Gresham and Xavier Duursma have offered marginal improvement, while Nik Cox, Archie Perkins, Elijah Tsatas and Zach Reid remain works in progress, at best.
Essendon’s high priced recruit Ben McKay had moments on Friday night he would rather forgetCredit: Getty Images
Brad Scott might not like “resultists”, but that’s the burden every Essendon coach has carried since 2017.
They have improved their professionalism under him, and he is their best chance of success.
But unless he can resolve the defensive issues that have bedevilled the club for more than a decade, and the administration can show the resolve needed to improve their performance in acquiring talent at the top end of the draft, the pressure will build.
Time to tackle the real issue, AFL
The AFL set up a straw man with its release on Friday that showed 18,508 tackles had been made in 2024, with just seven dangerous tackles resulting in suspension.
Charlie Cameron, of the Brisbane Lions, and GWS’s Toby Bedford were both suspended for three matches for tackling offences in round 18 but they were cleared by the appeal boardCredit: AFL Photos via Getty Images
They backed the MRO and tribunal’s call to declare the tackles by Toby Bedford and Charlie Cameron in round 18 as dangerous.
Using motherhood statements, the league implied it was protecting player health and wellbeing, using concussion as the only relevant metric for any discussion on the issue. It was offensive to football supporters who can chew and talk at the same time when it comes to player safety and the future of the game. What’s next? Banning a knee to the head if flying for a mark?
No one could explain why three weeks instead of a one-match ban was necessary, or what Bedford realistically should have done when chasing down an opponent to tackle him. Release an arm mid-flight? Seriously?
And the fury about what the game’s custodians are doing rises when spectators question – whether right or not – the treatment players receive when copping a potential brain injury in-game.
Carlton’s Harry McKay was left on the ground for six minutes after a head clash that left him noticeably dazed.
Notification from the ARC to busy doctors was too slow to have him removed for a head injury assessment. He kicked a goal. He could have been tackled to the ground. He could have been in another marking contest.
A runner went to him, but just like St Kilda’s Rowan Marshall and Geelong’s Jeremy Cameron before him, McKay stayed on the ground.
The desire to care is not at question. The system does not appear as good as it can be.
Surely, the state coroner’s recommendation for independent doctors needs serious evaluation.
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