the Hawthorne football club it was only 8 and 1/2 years ago when they recorded a third straight Premiership and were if not the best one of the greatest teams in AFL vfl history in those years they were almost unbeatable and when it got to Grand final day they were an Unstoppable force with the likes of Jordan Lewis Sam Mitchell Luke Hodge Jared ruffed Josh Gibson Sil rioli Ben Stratton and so many more and led by Head Coach aliser Clarkson the Hawks were a scary Prospect for many years but in 2016 the Premiership streak ended the Haw however were still a good team but just not what they once were which is understandable you can't be on top forever and in 2018 the Hawks finished fourth on the ladder but went out in straight sets against the much fancy tigers and then the demons and this was the last time Hawthorne made the finals now to be fair to Hawthorne they were only one winner away from sneaking into the finals in 2019 but at the time it felt like it was an end of the era for the dominance of the Hawthorne football club and questions did start to be raised about if Hawthorne's team was too old if alist Clarkson was the man to rebuild this club was claro willing to Bott him out to rebuild this team well in 2019 trade period and free agency period it didn't seem like clarkco had many thoughts about a rebuild and bottoming out as the Hawks would go on and recruit Sam frost from the Melbourne football club and Jonathan Patton from the gws Giants but we did see some senior players leave the club at the time which included letting Grant burel head to the Brisbane Lions and we saw the retirements of Jared ruffed will Langford and Ryan shaen make as well as the D listing a 43 gamer in Caden brand so they did lose nearly 650 games of experience but two of those were retirement so not exactly the coaches Co and they weren't exactly rebuilding the traditional way by moving on a lot more of their senior players and bringing in youth now the Hawks used only four picks in the National draft and rookie draft across the 2019 offseason which included will day with their first round pick Finn mcginness in their second round pick and Josh moris in their fourth round pick as well as Emerson Jacka in the rookie draft now of course will day is now a star of the competition and mcginness is a great tagger so definitely wasn't a bad draft but not a lot of young players coming through for Hawthorne of the 2019 off season now moving into 2020 the AFL season was one of the most unique ones we've ever had to endure as the season drastically changed due to the pandemic games were reduced to 17 and matches were mostly based outside of Victoria and Hawthorne only played two games at the MCG across the whole season now Hawthorne on the field unfortunately had their worst result in terms of lat Edition since 20 05 as they would finish in the bottom four but of course as most people would say the 2020 season could almost be counted as a mulligan for most teams but in the off season we did see some sort of change in a turnover of the list not so much in the trade hand as they only recruited Kyle hardigan from the ad crows and Tom Phillips from the magpies but they did go a lot harder in the draft as they used four picks and they did pick up one player in the rookie draft now you have to remember that this draft pull was quite smaller in 2020 than the previous years as of course it was affected by by the co era now unfortunately from the 2020 draft they really didn't do that well only Sheamus Mitchell has proved to be a decent player so far but one of the best pickups in 2020 wasn't even in the off season John yuken was recruited as a mid-season draft pick from their vfl side in the Box Hill Hawks and it was suspected that Sam Mitchell was one of the big reasons in getting yukim to the club and this may have been the first time when the higher ups at Hawthorne saw the potential of Mitchell being able to rebuild this club through youth now Hawthorne did move some more senior players off their Le which included Paul poo Ben Stratton Ricky Henderson and James folley but again three of these four players had retired so again not exactly the coach's Co now moving into 2021 the Hawks did improve on their win loss record with seven wins 13 losses and two draws and finished 14th on the ladder but of course this season was five games longer than the pandemic affected year in 2020 now in July of 2021 the Hawthorne football club announced that Sam Mitchell would be the successor to Alistar Clarkson and would become the full-time Hawthorne coach at at the end of the 2022 season however just a few weeks later Hawthorne announced that Clarkson will be stepping aside at the end of the 2021 season so after 17 Seasons this was the end of Clarkson's run at the Hawthorne football club and will always be seen as one of the greatest coaches in AFL vfl history but allor at the time knew the former superstar in Sam Mitchell was the man to lead this club forward now in the offseason Mitchell did have a little bit of a start moving into some youth longtime servant of the club in John segler was moved to the cats and and replaced by Max Lynch from Collingwood they also let go 97 gamer and Tim O'Brien as well as the retirement of Shawn beroy and the listing of Harley but there wasn't a whole lot of changes in Sam Mitchell's first offseason period but this is just the beginning of the Sam Mitchell era so in his first season hawthor performed a little bit better than the previous year as they recorded eight wins and 14 losses which was one win better but the same amount of points on the ladder at the end of the season and this is when Sam Mitchell started his big rebuild getting rid of the Old Guard and replacing it with youth so on the trade front we saw experienced Trio in Jack Gunston Tom Mitchell and J om move away from the club which combined for over 530 games of experience out of the door we also saw the retirements of Ben makoy and Liam Shields who had over 500 games of experience we also saw the delisting of the experienced pair of Daniel how and Kyle hardigan who had over 250 games of experience so overall just on those players alone that is over 1260 games of experience from the football club now the only player that Hawthorne picked up in the trade period and free agency period was Lloyd Meek from freem which was involved in the OM trade and KL Amon as a free agent from Port Adelaide now also don't forget the Sam Mitchell also had plans to use Chad Wingard as trade bait and Luke Bruce was suspected to have been wanted by the gws Giants but he wanted to stay a hawk so that could have been even more games lost to experience but the S Mitchell era at the club was coming into full effect at Hawthorne it went into that year's draft with two first round picks where they got Cameron McKenzie at pick seven and Josh wed at pick 18 So the plan to push Hawthorne into the next ERA with young Hawks was on track and everyone was wondering how they would go with Mitchell's new changes well to start off with it wasn't very good at all at the start of the 2023 season Hawthorne had a horror start with three of their first four games being nine plus goal defeats they only had one win from their first nine games and they were rock bottom of the ladder at the end of round nine and remember this is the year that North Melbourne had a 20 game losing streak and West Coast were getting smashed by 10 goals basically every single week now earlier in the season around the middle of March we saw journalist in Damien Barrett come out and suggest that the Hawks recruitment in the offseason was a form of tanking this this year of of trying to win as many matches as they can and it's a it's a form of tanking to what they've done this year now of course Sam Mitchell came out and denied those claims but when they were sitting Rock Bottom at the end of round nine of course the microscope was going to be put on the club but in round 10 we saw the turning point for the Hawthorne football club in a game that no one really thought twice about Hawthorne came out with a Vengeance against the 17th Place West Coast Eagles down in Tasmania it was a massacre as the Hawks would smash the West Coast Eagles by 126 points and even though these two sides were on the same amount of wins and were 17th and 18th on the ladder there was a stark difference between the two sides and this really got the Hawks up and going as after this game between rounds 11 and 13 they would win two of the next three games and round 13 was a significant building block for the Hawks as they went on to beat the Brisbane Lions who of course were a grand finalist in that year so from round 13 to the end of the season they would beat both Grand finalists and push other big sides in many games and even though they were pretty inconsistent at times it was expected as they were a young team but their best proved it could compete with anyone and with a lot of senior players at Hawthorne leaving the club in the off season in the previous year he gave more opportunity for younger players James sicle becoming the new captain of the club had a career best year with an Australian jacket will day moving into the Midfield saw him have a career best year winning the Hawks BNF we saw joh yukim and Conor Nash finishing second and third in their BNF respectively and so many more younger players who thrived with more responsibility which they probably don't get if those senior players stay on the list now even though the Hawks still finished 16th at the end of the season there was so much more promis from The Wider public and seemingly the club itself at the end of the season in the added bonus of Hawthorne's great second after their season was the fact that they were attracting interest from players at other clubs so looking at Haw Thorn's last off season they only lost Tyler Brockman to the West Coast Eagles Jacob kazinski to the Tigers and then Brendan Ryan to the Brisbane Lions who replaced by better ins on the trade table front which included Jack gan from the pies mayor Cho from the go co Suns as well as the return of Jack Gunston and they also picked up maimo J braio who has been one of the highest rated wingmen across the comp this season and because of the mass Exodus of exper experienced players over the past few years other than the unfortunate fourth retirement of Max Lynch they didn't lose a lot on the D listing and retirement front now the Hogs still went into the draft with four picks which they used on Nick Watson at pick five will mccave at picked 19 B Ryan at pick 46 and then kadere at 56 so moving on to this season Hawthorne were into their second year after the mass culling of senior players Sam Mitchell's third season as head coach and after a promising end to the 2023 campaign there was some decent expectations on the horor football Club however to say they started poorly was an understatement Hawthorn started the season with five straight losses and were just in front of North Melbourne on the ladder they did record their first win in round six against the ruse and since then they have been flying between rounds seven to 16 Hawthorne have won seven of their past nine games and one of those losses was a heartbreaker against Port Adelaide where they choked in the last quarter after having a 41o lead in the third quarter of that game but getting back to the positives of the Hawthorne football club they are on the verge of finals this year which has so many Hawthorne fans excited about the prospect of the potential of the brown and gold returning to the Glory Days of the mid-2010s and even if Hawthorne don't make the finals this year Sam Mitchell deserves so much praise from people suggesting his Club was tanking the silencing his doubters and getting his Club on the verge of final shows the true character of the man so Hawthorne right now are one of the most exciting clubs in the AFL and with so much room for this young Hawks team to grow they are going to be a scary Prospect for years to come hey guys thanks for watching this video I really do appreciate it now I like to do these little outros at the end of the CL maybe a little thing of why I've done these sort of videos but even though I'm actually a swans fans for any new viewers watching this I do have to really give the praise to someone like Sam Mitchell who has done so much for this club in such a short amount of time so that's why I thought this video was very interesting I'm trying to do video essays one for a team and then one about something to do with the AFL so I thought this week I'd talk about Hawthorne I mean I know they lost this week against the cats so that was a little bit unfortunate kind of really hope that they did win this week to make this video a little bit more exciting as well but and like I said in the video if they don't make finals this year I still think that's fine I think this team is built for greatness in the next couple of years but as always I do appreciate you guys' feedback on these sort of videos so please leave a comment down below of what your thoughts are on Hawthorne going forward of course make sure to share this to a mate if there as big of Hawks fan or big as AFL fan as you and enjoyed the video make sure of course to like And subscribe and if you'd like to show a little bit of extra support on the channel then of course we do have Channel membership enabled on the channel you get a bunch of exclusive perks which include live stream perks when we stream once a week for AFL games where I actually commentate them you also get early access to our videos on this channel the video essays as well as early access to the boundary Riders podcast and early access to the twinners podcast as well which is me and my brother's comedy podcast so if any of that interest you guys then make sure to click the channel membership link down below again thank you for listening thank you so much for the support and we'll catch you all next time [Music] he [Music]