I don’t thinks so, I believe your arguing with yourself by confirming a lot of those mentioned continued to play in sides that used them to mentor their kids and showed more improvement than Hawthorn , letting Hodge leave especially ,Mitchell , Lewis etc go was a mistake imo. A lot of the more highly rated players who left Hawthorn had more to give , bad mistake by Kennet and Clarkson
I think you overlook the fact they still had a lot of experienced players there to do the mentoring. Of course most sides after 2015 were going to improve more than the Hawks what did you expect it was an end of a dynasty and they had a whole pile of vets nearing the end.
They had so many experienced players they had to push some out the door who still had a little bit to offer. FFS Mitchell was 34 when he went to WCE and he had one underwhelming season, the deal was they would give him the season and he would then take on an assistent coaches role with them. It was a way to ensure they got the assistant coach they wanted.
Hodge was 33 fmd he played just two season with Brisbane and they were well down on his best. Of course Brisbane were happy to get his experience, they had made finals just once since they lost the flag in 2004 and that was 2009. They had young players coming thru who needed a mentor. The Hawks didnt they had more than enough blokes with finals and premierships just look at the plethora of experienced players on their list still in 2018 to do the mentoring.
T Mitchell, Shiels, Smith, Omeara, Henderson, Gunston,Impey Bruest, Roughead, Burgoyne, Stratton, Frawley, Puopolo, McEvoy, Duryea, O'Brien, Ceglar, Schoenmakers, Rioli.
That not enough premiership players for you.that not enough experience for you. Mate Hawthorn did what they had to do and like all clubs who spend significant time at the top and eke out the last drop from their better players they go into decline.
It will happen to us and of course we will have supporters lamenting the lack of experience.
Hawthorn was not sacking older players left right and centre as you suggest, they were eased out over a period of time 7 seasons.. Yep there was a few who thought they had something to offer still and ended up at other clubs good on em that happens all the time as well.
For mine the only one who was a mistake was Lewis.
When you say look at how Hawthorn went after cleaning them out. Well that implies they got rid of all of their experienced players real quick and it is just patently wrong. It also implies they were not having to go into rebuild.
In 2015 the end of their Dynasty after three in a row, a Dynasty that can be traced back to 2004 the average age of their premiership side was 27yrs and 303days. It was a very old team. Yet 7 yrs on they still had 4 players this year who played in that team obviously all were in their 30's.
Are we any different well lets go back 5 years to the end of 2017. It is a closer time line but the major difference is it was the start of our dynasty not the end.
we have lost 10 players from the 17 flag. a younger team by two yrs by the way. it was aged 25yrs 43 days.
Who remain Martin 31, Grimes 31, Cotchin 33, Riewoldt 34, Prestia 30, Nankervis 28, Vlastuin and McIntosh both will be 29 basically at the start of next season Broad will be in the same boat will be 30.
Rioli 25, Graham 25 and Castagna 26 could well be the only ones left in two seasons time the same time line as Hawthorn. It is not all that different to Hawthorn. Id call it natural attrition thru age..
No they did not just throw all the experience out in a rush. What has happened is they have not had the same quality coming in that went out and we are the same.
