HAWTHORN has implored its players not to repeat the mistakes of 2009, when the club missed the finals just one season after winning the premiership.
For the second time under coach Alastair Clarkson, the Hawks will bid for back-to-back titles in 2014, having beaten Fremantle in this year's Grand Final.
This time, however, the club believes it has learned lessons from its previous failure to back up, and is determined not to become complacent.
"We have to make sure we stay hungry, because teams are coming after us," head of football Chris Fagan told members at the club's annual general meeting on Monday night.
"That's what we didn't do in 2008.
"We probably partied too hard and got a little bit excited.
"It would be fair to say this year 'Clarko' (Clarkson) was onto the group three days after the Grand Final talking about 2008 when we didn't do that – we were just really happy with the result.
"In 2013, we've already started talking about what we can do in 2014."
Fagan said the first aim had been to ensure players returned from their off-season breaks in good shape.
"It would be fair to say in 2008 we had a lot of fatties after that Grand Final," he said.
"We put some pretty strict standards on our players this time around, and … 99 per cent of them have reached that, and the ones who didn't were only slightly over.
"So that's a good sign that their attitudes are the way they should be."
He also challenged the club's on-field leaders to handle the difficulties presented by victory just as well as those presented by the Grand Final defeat 12 months earlier.
"We've proven we can handle disappointment and we can be resilient, but one of the real tests of the leadership group is how they handle success," Fagan said.
Fagan also outlined several other key points he believed would help drive the Hawks toward back-to-back glory.
They included:
- Continuing to improve goal-kicking accuracy, particularly from set shots, where Hawthorn ranked ninth in 2013
- Continuing to increase the versatility of players
- Aiming to improve from fifth for points against in 2013 to first in 2014
- Keep evolving the game-plan so as not to fall behind other clubs.
Fagan said some of the focus of the club's pre-season camp, now taking place in South Africa, was on preparing the players mentally for the challenges ahead.
"We've got to stay humble, and we've got to stay hungry," he said.
"There are lots of traps when you win a premiership – you get a lot of pats on the back and a lot of accolades, and it's easy to get caught up in it.
"We're talking about that at the moment – not to fall for that."
