Meek: ‘Making sure we stick to our processes’

Following a year where Hawthorn exceeded expectations in the eyes of many pundits, emerging ruck Lloyd Meek has stressed that his team can’t get too ahead of themselves as they seek further success in 2025.

Meek was one of the feel-good stories of the 2024 season, making his way into the team in Round 3 and going on to miss just two games for the rest of the year through injury.

Speaking to 3AW, the 26-year-old spoke about his growth as a Hawkm, while also discussing the way he and his teammates are going about managing expectations for the season ahead.

We summarised some of the key talking points from his interview with Matt Granland.

On getting consistent games under his belt in 2024

“I know one thing’s for sure is I had that much fun being able to be in the team every week and be a part of it. Having been on the flipside for so long and so many years of trying to get in, I just kept telling myself to enjoy it and embrace it. My confidence grew each week and I think my teammates’ trust in me kept growing. By no means am I complete package, I’ve got a long way to go to get to that top tier of rucks in the competition, but it was nice to have the year that we did. As you know, in elite sport, it’s important to try and reflect and pat yourself on the back in due time, which I did at the end of last year, but I’m ready to go and get back into it now.”

On rucks like him taking a bit of extra time to get into the system

“It’s funny because for so many years, I hated hearing that. I always didn’t want to use it as an excuse but then I’m one of the cases where it did take me a bit longer to come out and establish myself. I think everyone talks about the years of pre-seasons and weight sessions and your body just needs time to develop because it is such a physical position. Age, physical size and strength are really 70 per cent of the role and then the craft, it definitely takes a while to learn the techniques. Each week in the AFL, you’re coming up against an experienced top-tier ruck in the country, like every team’s got a ruck that would sort of be in their top 10 or top five players in their team, so I suppose it takes a while to learn the craft and learn how to beat different opponents because every opponent’s ruck is different. You’ve got your taller, leaner guys who are good runners versus your stronger, bigger guys who push you around and you have to be able to adapt and try to beat each one differently which is something that I’ve had really great help with from really good coaches. David Hale has been instrumental in that. He was obviously at Freo with me for a few years and he’s now our mids and ruck coach at the Hawks so he’s been able to provide me with some consistency there which has really helped and hopefully we can take it another step further in 2025.”

On the team dealing with heightened expectations

“It’s funny how things turn. This time last year, I think we were tipped to be 17th on the ladder, if not wooden-spooners, and now people are backing us in as premiership favourites so it’s great and we’ll take it. As I said, in elite sports you can never get too ahead of yourself, so we’re really big on stemming complacency and being really strict as individuals but also as a team on making sure we stick to our processes and (knowing) what we do within the four walls does not change one thing based on what we become known as as a team. One thing Sam (Mitchell) has talked a lot about in the past is you get to earn the celebrations and the joy and the flair through our contest and our pressure and putting in on game day and that stuff doesn’t come lightly so we have to keep earning it week in and week out and keep being really consistent with our reviewing and our processes to keep our heads pointed in the right direction.”

On the areas the group is working on

“There’s a big part of going from 17th to sixth. We’re just going to have to get better to go from sixth to first. It’s not like it’s going to be anything that changes drastically, we just have to get another 50 per cent better. A lot of it has been our reaction time and our intensity. I think we got a bit of a taste of the pressure and intensity of finals football, especially obviously going down in that Port game, that’s one of the highest pressure games I’ve played in but we’ve still got to get to prelims and grand finals, so the gears will keep going up as the games get bigger and bigger and the moments get bigger and bigger so we just have to be able to handle that. We do a lot of work on mentality and our mindset and being able to handle big moments. They’re probably the key things that will hold us in good stead.”