Winning isn't everything

[Thryleon]

Didnt take Clarkson 4 years though.....2005-2008.......5 wins, 9 wins, 14 wins, 20 wins(flag).......where are we in comparison, look at the linear progression, had to rebuild
in 2 years and as a novice coach...

Yeah but they pinched that one early because all the moons alligned for them, where their draftees hit the ground running (Cyril) and their older draftees really hit their stride, along with their senior players making meaningful contributions.

To highlight this, the squad that played that day, and the year they were drafted:



    2. Roughead (2004) 3. Lewis (2004) 4. Ladson (2001) 5. Mitchell (2001) © 6. Williams (2000) 7. Osborne (2001 rookie draft) 8. Ellis (2005)  9. Crawford (1991) 10. Bateman (1999) 11. Young (2004 rookie draft)  12. Sewell (2003 rookie) 14. Birchall (2005) 15. Hodge (2001) 18. Guerra (1999 To port adelaide, 2004 recruited to Hawks) 23. Franklin (2004) 24. Croad (1997) 27. Gilham (2003 port, 2006 Hawthorn) 30. Brown (2001) 31. Dew (1997 PA, 2008 Hawthorn) 33. Rioli (2008) 34. Renouf (2006) 39. Campbell (2001)



The plan that they started under Peter Schwab, didn't really eventuate to a proper window of sustained success until 2012 when they lost the grand final to sydney.  The years following 2008 were as poor for Hawthorn as they were prior, because the club had to ditch the older blokes, and re adjust again with newer players and transition from the old.



People seem to think we have only had one rebuild that started years ago and continues.  IMHO, we started one when Malthouse arrived and it was poorly planned and executed where we ditched players who werent in it for the right reasons, and probably worked on getting the culture right first with limited success, and then we embarked on another one when SOS took over and I think even he has looked at it along with the club, and focussed on transforming the culture first, and is playing a much longer game with the list than anyone has anticipated.  His first iteration has only just started bearing fruit.  The initial Malthouse rebuild was the circuit breaker we needed to embark on a rebuild proper.


I have always stated, that I think if we got lucky we could be in the frame to jag one this year, but that's the thing with this approach.  It has been a calculated gamble that hasnt paid off as we would have hoped, hence why we are not sitting 4 and 4 and are instead 1 and 7.