After their clean out of the old guard, the Hawks were a team of great interest in 2023. Many were keen to see whether Sam Mitchell’s young charges would step up and accept the responsibility in the wake of veterans heading off to find another lease on their footballs lives.
And I am pretty sure those sitting and watching were very pleased with what they saw.
As with all young sides, the Hawks copped their share of beatings, but after winning just one of their first nine games, the team started to gel. Young players started to play like veterans, and the veterans they had left did their job by both supporting the developing kids, and stepping in where required.
The Hawks finished with a record of 7-16, meaning that after that horror start, they were able to rattle off six wins and seven losses. It wasn’t good enough to drag them out of the bottom four, but it was more than enough to strongly signal that this team was headed in the right direction.
With another preseason into their burgeoning stars like Will Day (until his injury), Jai Newcombe, and Josh Ward, and further development expected from Mitch Lewis, Josh Weddle, and Cam Mackenzie, this Hawthorn team has the main part of their next successful team already in place.
Is this the season they start their climb back toward finals?
It’s that time of year, already.
The break after Christmas and New Year is over. The holidays are finished for AFL players, and the hard stuff starts now. Yes, the teams had been training for well over a month prior to Christmas, but as we head into 2024, the ante is upped and the intensity increases.
This is where premierships are won and lost. This is where improvements are made and lists come together. 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 to 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 2024.
We don’t do things by halves here, at The Mongrel Punt. When we do a season preview, we go all out to make sure it is the best, most comprehensive coverage you’ll receive. We pride ourselves on it. If you are going to read one season preview for your team, or any team, this series provides it.
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 – 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 thousand words? That’s 18 x 7,000… gets out the calculator… that’s 126,000 words. The average novel is about 85,000 words, so buckle the hell up with these previews.
Also, if there are any issues that arise after the publication of the preview, they will be covered in standalone articles to act as additions to this preview.
You will not read a deeper 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.
Enjoy.
DID THE PENNY DROP FOR JAMES WORPEL IN 2023?
The easy answer is yes, it did. The more difficult answer is that several more things fell into place than just Worpel rediscovering his ability to be an excellent on-baller.
The departure of Tom Mitchell and Jaeger O’Meara paved the way for Worpel, as well as Will Day and Jai Newcombe, to play more significant roles in the Hawthorn midfield. And though the team took some lumps early in the season, by the time August rolled around, we were looking at a trio that were developing real chemistry in the guts.
It is interesting to look at Worpel with and without Tom Mitchell in the Hawthorn side. When Mitchell broke his leg in the pre-season of 2019, it was Worpel who stepped up to the plate, relishing the additional responsibility to not only average a career-high of 26.55 disposals per game, but to win the coveted Peter Crimmins Medal as the Hawks’ best and fairest.
When Mitchell returned, Worpel was pushed into the background, and both his style of play and numbers took a resultant hit.
In 2020, he dropped to 19.13 disposals (adjusted for the reduced gametime, his actual average would have been around 23.9).
In 2021, he sat at 21.3 touches per game, and then in 2022, things kind of fell away, with the then-22-year-old dropping to a career-low 15.36 disposals per game.
I’ve got to be honest here – following that 2022 season, I was concerned that Worpel might pack his bags and wander off somewhere else to play. He was a Geelong Falcon, and plenty of those blokes end up gravitating back to Kardinia Park. I’m pretty glad I was wrong on that one, as Worpel re-signed with the Hawks and proceeded to put together a stellar 2023.
Without Tom Mitchell to bother him.
I have to specify – this is by no means a Tom Mitchell bash. I still love the bloke and classify him as a Hawthron great, but as Worpel found form he had not seen in three years, it became apparent why Sam Mitchell was completely fine with moving Tom Mitchell and O’Meara on. He rated what Worpel could do, and did produce in their absence. He was proven to be correct.
You’ll like this bit – I am glad I found it.
In 2022, the Hawks ranked 18th for centre clearances. They were smashed out of the middle with the old guard in charge of proceedings.
Fast forward 12 months and the club finished third overall, riding the hard work of Worpel and company. It was a remarkable turnaround for both Worpel and the midfield as a unit, and as we head into the 2024 season, there is a feeling that this combination still has improvement in it. It’ll be tough with an underdone Will Day in the mix eventually, but as you’ll read below, Hawthorn possess a few more weapons it can unleash in the coming season. It will be interesting to see how they fit together.
WHAT CAN JACK GINNIVAN ADD TO THIS FORWARD LINE?
Well, if the bloke he is going to learn from is any indication, Ginnivan will be a better player than we saw at Collingwood. At least, better than the 2023 version.
Ginnivan leaves Collingwood a premiership player, but in reality, his influence on the team in their premiership season was minimal. He was relegated to a lesser role by the emergence of Bobby Hill, who went on to justify his more prominent position in the team with a scintillating first half in the decider, resulting in a Norm Smith Medal. Ginnivan’s position in the team was then made more tenuous when the Pies recruited Lachie Schultz. Of course, his decision to go to the races on Grand Final eve probably wasn’t the best idea, either.
But enough about Collingwood – they’ll get their own preview.
Hawthorn will be hopeful that the 2022 version of Jack Ginnivan is still in there somewhere, just waiting to break out and have an impact again. At his best, he is a clean-handed, elusive goalkicker with a chip on his shoulder, and it is the last point I’d like to drill down on.
Ginnivan wore the black hat for a whole year in the AFL. It is not an easy thing to do, with the crowd baying for your blood every week. Toby Greene gets it and wears it like a badge of honour. Jason Horne-Francis hasn’t quite embraced it the same way, but Ginnivan… he looks like he could be the type who grows to relish the boos. The league needs some villains, after all. However, in playing that role, he also puts a target on his back, and not just for opposition players.
Umpires began to feel like Ginnivan was pulling the wool over their eyes when they awarded a free kick for too-high and it became apparent on replay that Ginnivan contributed heavily to the high contact, himself. It became such that even when he almost had his head ripped off, umps were reluctant to blow the whistle because they felt like Jack was manipulating the rules and making them look stupid in the process.
And you know what?
He was.
He was using a flawed system to his advantage. As a result, the flawed system became even more flawed, with umpires not paying him free kicks based on his reputation for lowering his body into tackles. He was getting mauled in some contests and the umpires were simply putting the whistle away.
Does he leave that tactic at Collingwood? Does he now realise that whilst it paid off early, it hurt him in 2023?
Will it continue to hurt him in 2024?
Cody Weightman was heading down a similar path with the Dogs, but he managed to turn things around.
The Jack Ginnivan that set tongues wagging in 2022 was a super-villain in the making. With dyed hair, his tongue hanging out, and with the swagger usually reserved for someone with a lot more runs on the board, he was on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Maybe it is time to make that happen again…
… for the right reasons.
Whilst he will combine with Luke Breust and learn a lot from the veteran, he will also likely work with draftee, Nick Watson, as the torch is passed from Breust.
Is 40+ goals out of the question again?
He went from averaging 1.71 goals in 2022 to just 0.86 in 2023. That has to be the first thing addressed. He was getting roughly the same number of touches – he just wasn’t as effective with them. If 1.71 goals per game is the best he is gonna give, then I am sure the Hawks would be content with 1.5 per game in 2024. Assuming he plays 22 games, a haul of 33 for the season after 24 in 2023 would be a step in the right direction.
And it would be great preparation for when Breust finally does hang them up and the responsibility on Ginnivan is increased.
IS MABIOR CHOL MR RIGHT, OR MR RIGHT NOW?
Like Ginnivan, above, the Hawks would be hoping that the 2022 version of Mabior Chol is the one they recruited, and they don’t receive whatever he was in 2023.
Chol went from the penthouse to the outhouse at Gold Coast, playing all 22 games in 2022 for a return of 44 goals. To put that in further context, only 20 players averaged two or more goals per game in that season. Chol was amongst some pretty bloody company.
Jump to 2023, and Chol was the forgotten man in the Suns’ front half. Playing just eight games, he was a regular in the VFL as he made way for Ben King and was behind Levi Casboult, as well. He had no issues hitting the scoreboard in the seconds, notching 40 goals in 2023, but managed just ten goals from eight games for the senior team. Still, a fifty-goal season split across two teams… not bad.
Then, almost as soon as Damien Hardwick was announced as the new Suns coach, Chol was looking for a new home.
Hardwick was also the one responsible for Chol’s easy exit from Richmond following the 2021 season. You can join your own dots on just how highly Dimma seems to rate him.
But that is not Hawthorn’s problem – finding a marking target to support Mitch Lewis is their issue, particularly with Jacob Koschitzke heading to Richmond. And they found Chol as their answer.
How is this going to play out?
I love being proven wrong when it benefits a team and a player, but after watching Chol as a Sun, even when things were going well, he struck me as a “right time, right place” kind of player. The way he found the footy at times was either with a tremendous amount of foresight, or a large helping of luck mixed with some skill. Hell, maybe it was a mix of all three. Rarely did it seem to come to fruition the way I would have liked it to – via hard work.
My hope is that being relegated to the VFL and forced to move clubs again is the foot in the backside Chol needs coming into the 2024 season. He is on the books until the end of the 2027 season, which is a huge commitment from Hawthorn, and I have to admit, as much as I am concerned about this acquisition, just about everything Sam Mitchell has done to this point with this team has been spot on. Maybe I need to relax, sit back, and watch Mabs go to work in 2024?
I mean, can he be worse than Kosi was last year?
Koschitzke promised so much, but after doing all the hard work, would often seem to shoot himself in the foot. He’d push off, get space, lead hard, and just as it was about to pay off, he’d take his eyes off the footy and drop a chest mark. If Chol had luck, Kosi was the type of guy who could slip over, land in a barrel of nipples, and end up sucking his thumb.
Sometimes, it’s better to be lucky than good. Maybe Mabior has what it takes to be both?
If he does, his combination with Mitch Lewis (with the old firm of Gunston and Breust for support) could make the Hawks a real handful up forward in 2024.
HOW IMPORTANT IS FINN MAGINNESS TO THIS CLUB?
Firstly, kudos to Sam Mitchell for bucking the system and opting to do something that coaches seem to frown on in the modern game.
There was no “oh, we just back our system” bullshit from Mitchell when it came to stopping the opposition’s best player. Nope, he was having none of that played-out line. Sam knew what he had at his disposal in Finn Maginness, and he used him in the best way possible.
He put the brakes on some of the best in the business.
The thing I love best about Maginness is that you’re not going to outrun him. I saw Ed Langdon try. I saw Ed Langdon fail.
Now, just by stating that, it should give you an indication of the tank Maginness possesses. Ed Langdon is reputed as one of the best gut runners in the competition, consistently going end-to-end for the Dees at top pace, but when opposed to Maginness, he could barely scratch himself without Maginness grabbing hold of his hand to check his nails.
Maginness is close to single-minded, and though some would dismiss that as a weakness in his game, Sam Mitchell has embraced it and nurtured it, turning Maginness into the most feared run-with player in the competition.
Throughout the course of this article, I will reference the Round 21 game against Collingwood. It was the Hawks’ best game of the year and gave this group the type of win you can use to build on. Prior to James Blanck collecting Daicos and fracturing a bone in his knee (ouch), the role of shutting him down went to Finn.
And he was doing just that, holding Daicos to just five touches before he was subbed off, not to return.
Maginness is a wet blanket. He is so hard to shrug because he flat out refuses to engage with those trying to “protect” his target, and he is content to sacrifice his own game for the betterment of the team. He is strong enough that you can’t push off to get distance on him, and he is quick enough to close the distance if someone comes in and lays a block.
Sam Mitchell must love having Maginness at his disposal. Imagine having someone so committed to the cause that you just point out an opposition star and you have this bloke – soon to turn 23 – go over, stand next to him and make him a non-factor?
It would make everything else easier.
HOW DOES SAM MITCHELL BRING ALONG CAM MACKENZIE AND JOSH WARD WITHOUT UPSETTING THE MIDFIELD APPLE CART?
This is one that Mitchell will be giving plenty of thought to, and i have thank my fellow mongrel, Trent Adam Shields for his guidance on this topic.
When you look at the centre square talent the Hawks are cultivating, you quickly come to understand that they are in the midst of building a powerhouse midfield unit.
But when you’re constructing a group like this, sometimes, there are pieces that don’t quite fit, or cause instability in the structure. Sometimes, those pieces are discarded.
Right now, the Hawks have James Worpel, Conor Nash, Jai Newcombe, Will Day, and Dylan Moore rotating through the middle of the ground, but on the periphery are Josh Ward, Cam Mackenzie, and even Connor MacDonald ready and waiting for their opportunity, as well. When push comes to shove and all are healthy, who gets pushed to the side to allow this combination to function?
I suppose it is a great problem to have at this stage, as Mitchell is in a situation where he can sit back and assess who works best with whom, and how he can structure his midfield to maximise the chemistry. However, in the meantime, there are going to be players shunted into other roles they are probably unfamiliar with. This can cause both a little bit of uncertainty, and a bit of angst amongst the players.
We saw what happened at the Western Bulldogs with their abundance of midfield talent. It resulted in Josh Dunkley exploring his options on more than one occasion. Is this where Hawthorn are headed if they try to fit all this talent into the midfield rotation?
Of course, injuries, such as the one to Will Day, open up opportunities for others, but in the long term, a couple are going to be forced to adapt and take on very different roles, or they won’t be part of the team. For the younger blokes, learning a new role now would be wise, as if this Hawks midfield really starts humming, breaking into it will be tough, and having another string to their bow will be hugely beneficial. But on current experience, Will Day is the best-suited to play a different role… and he is the one hurt!
Yes, it is a great problem to have… for now, but there will be some tough decisions made at the Hawks over the next couple of seasons. Luckily, Mitchell does not seem backwards when it comes to making those decisions, and after a little reticence from some segments of the Hawks supporter base, I reckon he has earned their trust to make those tough calls.
This concludes the free section of our preview. Not bad, huh? The next two-thirds are for our members. You can join, y’know?
As mentioned above, the first five questions are free – the next 10-12 are for our members. I believe my work is worth twenty-five cents per day. If you don’t, that’s fine. You’re welcome to join and keep reading
