Big AFL names gone at rebuilding Hawks

The frenetic end to the AFL trade period underscored Hawthorn’s intentions as Sam Mitchell prepares for his second season as coach.

As Brownlow Medallist Tom Mitchell left for Collingwood and fellow star onballer Jaeger O’Meara went to Fremantle in last-minute trades, the Hawks showed their commitment to a thorough list rebuild.

Under Alastair Clarkson, Mitchell and O’Meara were brought to Hawthorn in the 2016 trade period to top up their list and stay in the premiership hunt.

Those pre-COVID days are ancient history at Waverley.

Jack Gunston was also traded to Brisbane in the last few days, while fellow premiership players Ben McEvoy and Liam Shiels have retired.

That leaves the coach and Luke Breust as the only remnants of their 2015 premiership team at Hawthorn.

Mitchell finished fifth and O’Meara seventh in the club’s best and fairest count – all the other players in the top 10 are in the nucleus of the Hawks’ rebuild.

There is an obvious loss of experience and leadership, but list manager Mark McKenzie says they feel they are ready.

“This year, Sam Mitchell flattened the leadership group, which allowed a lot of our younger guys to develop their leadership,” McKenzie said on Wednesday night.

“So that’s really taken away the age of the person in the group. We saw some leaders like Dylan Moore, Mitch Lewis, Jack Scrimshaw, CJ (Changkuoth Jiath).

“We’ve made no secret that we’ve made a clear strategy of getting games into our younger guys,”

Hawthorn’s offloading of Mitchell and O’Meara was one of the most striking features of the trade period.

At the other end of the scale, premiers Geelong, Richmond, Melbourne and Collingwood all topped up their lists as they target the top four.

Most forecast trades went through – an obvious exception being Geelong’s Esava Ratugolea, who wanted to go to Port Adelaide.

Jeremy Sharp will stay at Gold Coast after his bid for a move to Fremantle fell through, while North Melbourne failed in their bid to recruit St Kilda’s Hunter Clark.