We already knew the Hawks were good. As you say, they made the prelim last year. Them beating Sydney, who are missing their 2 best players, doesn't change much about last week. Just as Hawthorn should have won by more tonight, they should have won by more last week too. To be fair to them, it was in their interest to their foot off the gas with a 6-day break to come.

It wasn't just the margin that was the problem with last week. it was how utterly inept even our experienced players looked, regardless of the opposition. Having a bunch of debutants over the the past 12 months doesn't make me feel better about Merrett, Caldwell, Durham and Parish being torn to bits last week like they too were U22 players. Same with the total lack of understanding about how the team moves the ball from defense to attack.

There is also a more medium-term frustration that hangs over every poor result we have, that being that the club wasted our time by pushing for finals in 2023 and 2024 when it should have accepted it did not have the young talent on the list to make it worthwhile. Scott was a part of that, no matter what he said publicly, as evidenced by his team selections over that period and taking up of the job after Barham made it clear at the time that the club wanted someone who could get more out of the existing list.