Get better inside
Alastair Clarkson said as much after the game on Friday night. The Hawks have never worried too much about contested ball stats in the past, but the game has changed and they might start having to.
The Western Bulldogs held the edge 161-111 in that category. The week before, it was 170-118 in Geelong's favour.
Against the Dogs the Hawks stuck 104 tackles, but it counted for little. The elephant in the room at Hawthorn is the contested game and what should please supporters is that Clarkson has already acknowledged that the Hawks need to get better at it.
Clarkson is the best coach in the competition (although Luke Beveridge might be gaining ground) and when he identifies a problem, he not only fixes it, but adds some sort of wrinkle that puts his side ahead of the competition.
The mooted recruitment of Tom Mitchell from the Swans should help in that department and if the Hawks manage to swing the deal for Jaeger O'Meara as well, their midfield should be in good shape going forward.
The other issue is their forward line. They didn't score heavily enough this year and Clarkson correctly pointed out that percentage is one of the great indicators of how a team is faring and Hawthorn's middling 118.6 percentage figure spoke volumes.
The Hawks never adequately replaced the retired David Hale and were really up against it once it became clear Jarryd Roughead wouldn't return at all this year. Speculation has Richmond's Tyrone Vickery also heading to the Ricoh Centre next year and if the Hawks can drum out his inconsistency, he should represent an upgrade.
And that's the cause for optimism. With very few exceptions, Hawthorn makes everyone who walks through the doors a better footballer. And the Hawks rebound well from setbacks; they won the flag in 2008 after a humbling semi-final defeat to North Melbourne the year before and after throwing the 2012 Grand Final away with poor kicking, they won the next three.
Don't mistake Hawthorn's magnanimity in defeat on Friday night for acceptance that the golden era is over. This is a fiercely competitive group that will reset and come again. It is just what the Hawks do.
