Having ruled the competition for a decade, it’s a bit confronting to find Hawthorn back in the top six again already. But this is not a return, it’s a rebirth.
Hawthorn president Andy Gowers looked at the team as it was engulfed in 10-deep jubilation the changerooms on Friday night after their elimination final thumping of the Bulldogs and noted that Jack Ginnivan, Mabior Chol, Nick Watson and Calsher Dear were all new to the club this year, and Jack Gunston was making a new beginning.
They’re the family club; all they need now is families. This puts them in conspicuous contrast with, for instance, still reigning, but soon to be deposed premiers Collingwood. Mitchell bristled slightly at the mention of the winless beginning and would not admit to outright surprise at the transformation, saying they had played better football all along than their early ladder position suggests.
This manifests most obviously at Hawthorn in their busy social media profile and their extroverted celebration of goals, typified on Friday night by Chol when he leap-frogged clean over Watson after the little man had kicked and goal, and by Ginnivan, who after kicking a fourth quarter goal mimed a drinking action, a retort to critics after he was seen in a Richmond pub on Thursday night.
“I thought we were quite mature,” said Mitchell. “More than 97,000 , the biggest crowd I’ve ever coached and most of them have ever played in front of. The players handled every aspect of the game really well. Counterpart Luke Beveridge said his Bulldogs had been playing elimination finals for 10 years – five in that time, for two wins – and have not found them any easier. Though glum about his team’s lacklustre effort, Beveridge was gracious enough to pay due credit. “Ask yourself the question of how much of it is Hawthorn and how much is us,” he said. “I would say a bit of both.“Credit to them. They looked slick across the ground, and put us under enormous pressure.
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