Hawthorn Executive General Manager of Football Rob McCartney says he's equally excited about the current position of team, and the direction it is headed.
On Saturday, the Hawks will face Collingwood in a 12th versus 13th clash, which could shape either team’s season.
Despite a 0-5 record to begin the season, McCartney stopped short of saying he was surprised to be in the finals hunt at this stage of the season, but did admit he was proud of the development the players are showing.
“We were reasonably bullish about the improvement we saw through season 2023,” McCartney told SEN’s Sportsday.
“We know some decisions we made in the past few years required a bit of time to regenerate our list.
“We’re pretty excited to be in the position we are in today, looking forward to playing Collingwood on Saturday afternoon at the MCG and it counts for something.
“We’re pretty chuffed to be in this position at the moment.”
A sour note to come from the last few weeks has been Mitch Lewis’ season-ending ACL injury, with the forward set to undergo surgery next week.
McCartney said the injury was a “bitter blow”, for not only Lewis, but for the whole team, commending the young forward on the resilience shown so far in his recovery.
“Mitch had worked so hard to get back after a pretty frustrating 2024,” McCartney said.
“He played the first three games and just had a number of niggles that kept him out until that Geelong game.
“For him to now be sidelined for 12 months, it’s been challenging for all of us.
“But what I will say is that Mitch, since the injury had been diagnosed through the scan, his demeanour, his interaction, his focus on what he can do to help the team at this stage to get better and stay alive in the season has been amazing and a credit to the character of Mitch and who he is and who he’s matured into.
“He’s a young 25-year-old who wasn’t an early pick, didn’t get an early start to playing AFL football after he was picked but has worked hard to get to the point he’s at.
“We’ll use him as a leader and he’ll have significant contributions to us but not as a player for a period of time.”
Looking ahead, McCartney is confident about the direction of Hawthorn’s list.
With a number of emerging players in the squad, McCartney said the club continues to explore potential additions to its key position stocks to support the likes of Lewis when he returns.
“We’ve always said over the last couple of years that we know where the needs of our list build are at,” McCartney said.
“We’ve said even with Mitch, if the opportunity arose for us to get a key forward and a key defender, we’d be in the market for both of those positions.
“So that doesn’t change. Obviously, we still would look to add a key forward to our group, but that’s not because of Mitch not being part of 2025.”
Speaking of forwards, McCartney was quick to praise the work of a young draftee and a boom recruit.
“What we have had is the surprise of Calsher Dear and his performance in this season,” he said.
“Mabior (Chol) has done an outstanding job in terms of coming to his third club and making an impact more or less immediately.
“So we’ve got a little bit of depth, but we always knew that even with Mitch, we were going to be in the hunt for another key forward over this journey.”
McCartney and the Hawks now look forward to taking on the Magpies in a blockbuster clash this Saturday afternoon at the MCG.
