In accepting his fourth Peter Crimmins Medal on Saturday night, Sam Mitchell warned against complacency; about the foolishness of telling ourselves the hard work that got us to the Grand Final this year will be enough for next year.  

I can assure you Hawthorn Football Club is not satisfied with coming second, and work has already commenced in earnest.

While we should be proud of our achievements this year, and of all the hard work and dedication of our staff, volunteers and Board members, we need to improve and challenge ourselves if we are to go one step further.

Our best-and-fairest event on Saturday was an opportunity to honour and celebrate some outstanding individual achievements of 2012. I congratulate all the award winners, particularly Sam who joins Hawthorn greats John Kennedy Senior, Jason Dunstall and Shane Crawford as a four-time Peter Crimmins Medallist.

It was encouraging to see some of our younger players feature prominently in the awards, with Luke Breust (fourth), Cyril Rioli (sixth) and Ben Stratton (ninth) all finishing in the top ten. Breust also took out the award for Most Promising, while exciting forward Jack Gunston won the Best First Year Player. 

A special mention must also go to Brent Guerra, who was named Best Clubman after his selfless approach to the final series. 'Goo's' attitude, and the selfless and gracious way all the boys who missed out handled themselves over the week, epitomised Hawthorn's season. It was about putting your team first and you as an individual second.

We also said goodbye to our retiring players Chance Bateman, who made a very moving speech, and Cameron Bruce, and farewelled Assistant Coach Leon Cameron and Development Coach David Flood. We wish them all the best in their future endeavours and know they will always remain part of the Hawthorn family.

I would also like to acknowledge Stuart Fox who has done a wonderful job as your CEO. Stuart, together with his outstanding administration staff, has performed at the highest level throughout the year and we can all be very proud of them.

Although we failed to achieve our final goal in the five2fifty business plan (2008-2012), Stuart and his management team have been working hard on a new strategic plan that will drive this Club over the next couple of years. I'm sure it will feature some challenging and inspiring elements and we look forward to unveiling the details of the plan to you soon.

At the beginning of the year I said clubs win premierships, not teams. Although we didn't make it over that final hurdle, I am more convinced than ever that every single person involved with Hawthorn, especially you, our 60,841 signed-up 2012 members, contribute to making us the Club we are.

In his speech on Saturday night Alastair asked all of the football, administration staff and volunteers to make their way to the stage to be presented to the entire room. He asked the partners and wives, and families of the staff and players to stand up and receive our thanks. He acknowledged the Board also.

This message to members is my way, on behalf of all at Hawthorn Football Club, of saying thank you and of acknowledging all 60,841 2012 members for your unwavering support. To see the brown and gold on match-day, to hear our Cheersquad and all our supporters' voices raised as one, and to know we have some of the most passionate fans in the League is motivation enough to attack our 2013 campaign.

I hope you will join us again for what promises to be an exciting year.

ALWAYS HAWTHORN
Andrew Newbold