Much has been made of Hawthorn’s midfield in 2019.
Losing a reigning Brownlow Medallist is never a positive start to a year, but a deeper look into the individuals who have covered for Tom Mitchell tells a positive tale.
Jaeger O’Meara
Jaeger O’Meara has enjoyed an outstanding start to the season, averaging a career-high 28.8 disposals. An element of Jaeger’s form that sets him apart from other midfielders across the competition is his goal kicking, with the 25-year-old having booted six goals from his six outings. Of all the players in the league to be averaging a goal per game, O’Meara holds the highest possessions average. Finally, in a sign of how complete his game has become in 2019, the powerful on-baller is leading the Hawks in total tackles this season, laying 6.2 a game to rank 10th league-wide.
James Worpel
In just his second season in the system, James Worpel is leading the way for the Hawks in winning the ball at the coalface. Worpel is averaging 24.7 possessions per game, 12.1 of which are contested – good for ranking inside the top 20 in the league. The former Geelong Falcon is setting an outstanding pace with his attack at the contest. In fact, through his first 18 games, the 20-year-old has recorded more contested touches than every Brownlow Medallist since 2006 through the same period in their respective careers.
Contested possessions through first 18 games
James Worpel 164
Dustin Martin 158
Tom Mitchell 149
Matt Priddis 148
Scott Pendlebury 148
Chris Judd 138
Nat Fyfe 129
Patrick Dangerfield 121
Adam Goodes 120
Gary Ablett Jr 119
Jimmy Bartel 109
Trent Cotchin 105
Adam Cooney 103
Sam Mitchell 99
Dane Swan 85
Liam Shiels
Since his return from a hamstring injury in Round 6, Liam Shiels has been a stand-out, registering some superb numbers. The midfielder has averaged 27.5 disposals, 6.5 clearances and two goals over the past fortnight, including a career-high three goals in last week’s win over Carlton.
Ricky Henderson
Ricky Henderson has been a fan favourite so far this season, running at a career-high 24.9 disposals, 7.9 marks and six goals from his seven appearances. The 30-year-old featured in four consecutive weeks’ worth of coaches’ votes from Rounds 2 to 5.
Isaac Smith and Tom Scully
Upon the Hawks securing the services of Tom Scully in last year’s trade period, many Hawks fans’ minds instantly went to the running power of their new wing pair in the former Giant and Isaac Smith. The two running machines have not disappointed on these expectations, sharing the GPS throne over the past six games. Smith has topped the distance covered charts in Rounds 2, 3 and 6, while Scully has owned Rounds 4, 5 and 7.
R2 Smith 15 kilometres
R3 Smith 15.4kms
R4 Scully 16.1kms
R5 Scully 16.5kms
R6 Smith 16.8kms
R7 Scully 15.9kms
We hear you wondering… If our players are in such strong form, why are we sitting 13th on the ladder with only three wins from seven games?
Plainly and simply, the core of a lot of our issues is at stoppages.
We rank 14th for clearances league-wide with an average clearance differential of 7.3 less clearances per game than our opposition.
We have already had four games this year of losing the clearance count by double figures, with our worst game in this area coming against Carlton in Round 6 when they had a monstrous 18 more clearances.
This lack of generating forward thrusts from stoppage is impacting our production of inside 50s, where we rank 10th across the competition.
Operating at a scoring rate of 44.4% when inside 50, this is one of the Hawks’ areas of strength this year – but the ball simply hasn’t entered our attacking 50 on enough occasions so far this year to post consistent winning scores.
R1: -11 clearances, -3 inside 50s
R2: -12 clearances, -17 inside 50s
R3: even clearances, +8 inside 50s
R4: -13 clearances, +2 inside 50s
R5: +1 clearances, -7 inside 50s
R6: -18 clearances, +9 inside 50s
R7: +2 clearances, -13 inside 50s
Average: -7.3 clearances, -3 inside 50s
