Have I left the best until last?
Not quite, but I have left my own team until last, because there is a heap to get through when it comes to the Hawks.
A second-straight September run saw the club ousted in the Preliminary Final by those damn Cats. Yeah, I know… Geelong were a better team, but it really cocked up that “we win when it counts” stuff Hawks fans were all banging on about in last year’s finals.
They faced the cats when it counted in a big way. And they lost.
Anyway, they’re coming off a post-season that saw the Hawks not get what they wanted. Sam Mitchell met with club captains, ruffled feathers, and at the end of the day, the Hawks got bigger all for it. Plenty of media, plenty of attention, but no players.
Other clubs got a bit better – the Hawks are hoping that organic improvement in their list does the same for them.
Players like Josh Ward, Cam Mackenzie, Connor MacDonald, and Calsher Dear are all required to do more in order for the Hawks to progress. However, if they don’t, the Hawks’ strategy to put all their eggs in the Zach Merrett basket, only to see them crack open all over the ground, may be the move, or failed move, that defines their year.
That sounds kind of depressing…
If you’re reading all our previews, you can skip ahead a little bit – It’s the standard intro.
We’re steaming toward a new season, and as we do, it is time to turn our attention away from the glory of last year and look at the possibilities of the new one.
The players have been on the track for a while now – the work is intensifying as we move onto February, and the charge into the new season ramps right up.
This is where premierships are won and lost. This is where improvements are made and lists come together. This is where the kids show if they’re serious or not, and young projects become the next group of stars. New faces, new colours, old heads with renewed passion… so much feeds into the making of a contender. And as the days tick down toward the intra-club clashes, practice games, and eventually the real stuff, questions are raised about each team and how they’re going to perform in this new season.
And that’s where HB and The Mongrel come in.
We don’t do things by halves here, at The Mongrel Punt. When we do a season preview, we go all in to make sure it is the best, most comprehensive coverage you’ll receive. We pride ourselves on it. If you want to read one season preview for your team, or any team, this series will provide what you’re after.
The way it works is as follows.
Each club has a minimum of 15 questions asked about the upcoming season, their coaches, their players, and their expectations. The answers are not glossed over. We dive deep on each and every one of them – some singular answers would normally be long enough for an entire column. The first five questions/answers are free for you to consume. The next 10-14 for each club are for our members, including a special appearance from Mrs Mongrel to throw her two cents in the mix.
Isn’t it a bit early for a season preview? Well, I suppose, but do you know how long it takes to write seven-to-nine thousand words? That’s 18 x 8,000… gets out the calculator… that’s 144,000 words. The average novel is about 85,000 words, so buckle the hell up with these previews; HB goes deeper than anyone else covering the game..
Also, if there are any issues that arise after the publication of the preview for any team, they will be covered in standalone articles to act as additions to this preview.
You will not read a more comprehensive season preview than this – I guarantee it. This is where we start the run to the new season, and believe me – nobody does it better than The Mongrel.
Let’s jump into the season preview for the Hawks.
1 – DO THE HAWKS HAVE ENOUGH ORGANIC IMPROVEMENT TO MAKE THIS TEAM BETTER, DESPITE A POOR TRADE PERIOD?
The answer to this question will define the Hawthorn season.
They went all-in on Zach Merrett and lost, and it left the Hawks without any incoming talent, and without several players who were best-23, or hovering around the best-23 mark, in 2025.
So, after that net-loss of the trade period, the Hawks will look inwards to get better, hoping that placing faith in some of the younger players is what is required to push them to the next level.
Where does that improvement come from?
The obvious choice is now sitting out with a dislocated shoulder that required surgery. We’ll get to a whole section on Will Day, but it throws the door wide open for others to make their mark.
The one most are thinking will pick up the midfield slack is Connor MacDonald, who has spent the first four years of his career playing largely as a half-forward. The talent is there, and so is the experience at a junior level. How that translates to the highest level will be what most people are keeping an eye on through the Match Sims and AAMI Series.
MacDonald was prolific when he slotted into the midfield at Box Hill, collecting 37 touches in one of his only two outings at the level. However, as part of the seniors, he attended just five centre bounces in 2025, and I think that people might be overestimating what he can produce in the role, based on the fact he is just a very handy footballer. Kind of like talking it into existence.
Personally, I like that Cam Mackenzie will get a bit of a run at it. I don’t know whether Sam Mitchell likes or dislikes that Mackenzie has such similar traits to himself. You can see it in the lateral movement, the handball ready to fire out, the eyes darting everywhere. He looks like the most natural midfielder of the Hawthorn young brigade to me, but found himself at Box Hill for ten games in 2025, where he averaged 25 touches per game.
At AFL level, Mackenzie started 2025 well, averaging 21 touches through his first four games, but soon found himself in the seconds. Of the games he played, he attended 48% of centre bounces. I have faith in him, and I have to admit, I was a little afraid we’d lose him when his name started to be floated during trade period.
Do not lose him – this would be a disaster.
That brings us to Josh Ward, who started to look like he was cherry ripe to make a massive difference late in 2025. His 20.6 touches were a nice bonus for the Hawks, and he will be looking to build on that this season. More on him later.
And then there is Nick Watson. There have been plenty stating that he will be moving into the guts for periods, as well. I don’t know why, but some seem to think he might be solid in the role.
Dylan Moore could also increase his 18% centre bounce attendance number in the wake of departures and injuries.
Overall, the Hawks have the troops to field a solid midfield, but if they saw Zach Merrett was the answer to their onball issues, how do they compensate for losing him before they even had him?
What they really need is one of the players mentioned in this section to jump out of the box. If they get a surprise season from one of them, perhaps things will not be as bad as some believe?
2 – WHAT IS THE 2026 CEILING FOR MITCH LEWIS?
There was a time when I genuinely thought the Hawks had found their 50-goal per year forward, in Mitch Lewis.
Unfortunately, nobody mentioned this to his body, which has continually let him down to the point I am not too sure Hawthorn fans have a lot of faith in him, anymore.
He is 27 years old (where does the time go?) and becomes an Unrestricted Free Agent following this season. Right now, you have to think this is the make-or-break season for him, not only in terms of his position in the current side, but in regard to the remainder of his career. A 50-goal season right now would see Lewis command significantly more money than the Hawks, or anyone else, would be willing to fork out for a bloke that is continually stationed on the sidelines.
He played just eight games in 2025, after tallying only four in 2024. The most he has played in a season is 15, but the Hawks persist because finding a key forward who can contest and drag down big clunks is so bloody difficult. And despite those myriad injuries, Mitch Lewis is still the most capable player on the list of doing that.
A footballing renaissance from Lewis in 2025 could be just the panacea for the Hawks, who are reliant on Jack Gunston to snag a heap of goals. Teaming with Mabior Chol to provide marking targets, Lewis has the ability to wield significant influence in 2026, but every Hawthorn fan will remain wary until they see him front up, week after week, for 20+ games.
His ceiling?
His ceiling is inserting himself into the conversation as to who the best contested-marking forwards in the competition are.
Sadly, I think his elevator got stuck somewhere between the ground floor, and being a player with a heap of potential.
And he never really kicked on. Maybe 2026 is the year he finally makes it all work.
I wouldn’t hold my breath, though.
3 – IS MOVING THE WIZARD INTO THE MIDFIELD A GOOD IDEA?
Oh, I hate this. I seriously don’t think Nick Watson can add more to the Hawks in the midfield than they lose up forward without him.
It may only be five or six times throughout the game, but when he is running through the middle, who else becomes the dangerous small forward?
Dylan Moore?
Nup, sorry… he spends two thirds of his time away from goal, as it is.
Jack Ginnivan?
See the description for Moore and apply it here, as well.
Connor MacDonald?
Nope, he has been touted as a midfielder to compensate for the losses in the middle, already.
I am putting this out there and if it comes back to bite me, so be it – teams and coaches need to stop taking players away from where they play great footy, and adding them to the mix of players who can already do the job in the middle.
Is Nick Watson going to make a difference in an area the Hawks were smashed in during the Preliminary Final? Is he the one to counter the might of Patrick Dangerfield, as he crashes and bashes in at centre bounces, making the opposition look like children, in comparison?
Hell, Watson already looks like a child – Danger would make him look like a toddler!
Watson is a forward. He is exactly what the Hawks need inside 50 and, at worst, he drags the best small defender to him each and every week.
Leave him where he can inflict big damage and don’t have him wallpapering over poor stats by picking up five or six relatively meaningless possessions out the back of contests – there are heaps of players that can do that. Not so many can do what Watson does inside 50.
I understand that the Hawks, and Watson, might be looking for a way to right the wrongs of 2025. Watson had a shocker in the Prelim, but moving him into the midfield for no other reason than to offer something different leaves the forward line looking a lot less potent.
Let the small forward be a small forward. Too often, we’re asking what else they can be, whilst not appreciating what they are. He could be a genuine star of the game as a small forward, but as a midfielder, he is just another midfielder, and an undersized one, at that.
4 – CAN MASSIMO D’AMBROSIO BECOME THE BEST WINGMAN IN THE GAME? HOW?
Yeah, he can. The competition is tough – Errol Gulden will be back in good nick for the Swans, Jarrod Berry is the reigning Robbie Flower Award winner, and Ollie Dempsey is always a threat going forward for the Cats.
Maybe Josh Daicos will end up returning to the wing for Collingwood and allow Dan Houston to play his natural role?
But Massimo is not far removed from that bracket, and with a couple of tweaks to his game, could become the number one man in the competition in short order.
So, how does he do this?
Well, D’Ambrosio has no trouble finding the footy. He gets out wide and enjoys drifting back inside defensive 50 to give his defenders a chop out. He slotted at 11th for Rebounds, after finishing sixth in 2024. Those numbers were 2.1 and 2.4 respectively.
He was also 11th at Hawthorn for inside 50 deliveries in 2025, which was an improvement on his 13th place finish in 2024. In those years, he averaged 2.7 and 2.3 inside 50s, respectively.
So, he has made some inroads into being a more balanced player, adding more offence to a game that naturally gravitated toward the defensive end a couple of years back.
However, the 2025 winner, Jarrod Berry, averaged 3.1 inside 50s and 3.0 Rebound 50s in 2025.
Kind of like D’Ambrosio… only better, and more consistent. Harder, too.
D’Ambrosio has time on his side. He is still just 22, and his ability to get out into open space, but retain the presence of mind to get back on defence, has seen him become a pivotal aspect of the Hawks’ transition game. That said, he plays the game in quite a passive manner. He doesn’t take the game on as much as I’d like, and that would be the area I’d like to see more from him.
Is it a confidence thing? Game plan? A bit of a combination of both that has seen him go long down the line instead of biting off that 45-kick to tear the game open?
D’Ambrosio has been a wonderful acquisition. The Bombers really got screwed on that one and credit to Sam Mitchell for seeing the oak tree in the acorn, here.
Massimo finished third in our Wingman of the Year Award last year, behind Berry and Dempsey, but he was not that far away. A little more confidence in what he is able to do by foot, and a little more throwing caution to the wind, tucking the footy under his arm and taking off, and he could soar to the top as quickly as 2026.
Take the game on, Massimo. You have every tool to be the best wingman in the game.
5 – HAS MABIOR CHOL NOW DISPENSED WITH THE “BAD MABIOR” PERSONA?
Hands up if you have been guilty of criticising Mabior Chol during his time at Hawthorn.
*HB sheepishly raises his hand… then raises the other one*
Yeah, I have not been his biggest fan, at times. But people can change, right? I heard Rocky Balboa say it when he had just been given brain damage… it must be true.
I think that there have been times when that criticism has absolutely been warranted, and the 2024 finals series was probably the zenith of that. Not to flog a dead horse, but his efforts in those two finals (6.5 disposals and 0.5 goals) made me want to gouge my own eyes out… right after I gouged his out. It fed the perception that there were two versions of Chol.
Good Mabs, and Bad Mabs.
Good Mabs found a way to kick goals. Always had – he used to have this amazing talent of making it look like he was lucky. The ball would somehow bobble around and spill out the back or side of the pack, and there would be Chol, ready to capitalize.
However, it happened far too often to be luck. The truth is, Mabs is a bit of a footy savant – he turns nothing into something and makes it look effortless. So much so, that people believe he is not actually trying!
So when he is unable to conjure something great, the aesthetics aren’t ideal and it looks like he isn’t applying himself.
He kind of put that perception to bed in 2025.
He kicked 44 for the Suns in 2022, but 2025 genuinely felt like Chol’s best season. A couple of extra goals don’t mean a lot to me when I look at the way he was playing. The Hawks needed him to compete in the air, follow up at ground level, and tackle hard.
And that’s exactly what he did.
He bumped his contested grab numbers up to 1.3 (+0.4 on 2024) and when it came time to stand up in September, he did not slink off into the night as he did in 2024.
Whilst the scoreboard impact didn’t improve, he found ways to stay involved. The previous incarnation – Bad Mabs – would have sulked and been content to be where the footy wasn’t.
Good Mabs refused, and kept grinding.
I respected his game in the finals, and I reckon he went a long way to dispelling any notion that Bad Mabs still has a foothold.
Picture him like Gollum. In 2025, he found the player he could be again, stood up to his alter-ego and told him – “go away, and never come back.”
Now, just keep whoever looks like Faramir away from him (is it Bont? He looks a bit like David Wenham) and maybe Good Mabs, Smeagol, or Mabior Chol, will be the forward the Hawks rely on down the stretch in 2026.
The remainder of this article, and the next 16 questions are for our members. They support me, and I provide for them. It’s a good deal.
Oh… a Mongrel paywall… the worst of all paywalls. We’re on the march to the 2026 AFL season and it all begins here. The Mongrel’s Big Questions Season Previews are THE best in the business. If you know, you know… if not, maybe it’s time to find out. Pre-Season, Practice Games… we’re all in. Dump the mainstream lip service and dive into articles like this – you will never look back. If you don’t want to, that’s fine. You’re welcome to re-read the first five questions again, but if you do… there is a heap more below.
