2184 days. That is how long it has been since Hawthorn last graced the finals.
It was 2018. The Hawks had made the top four and lost the Qualifying Final against Richmond.
The Hawks then were bundled out by the Demons in the following week’s Semi Final and since then, it has been a long drought for Hawthorn supporters.
Fast forward to this AFL Finals Series and the turnaround has been remarkable.
Sitting in 17th position after losing its first five matches and with a percentage of under 65%, the Hawks looked like they were bound for a bottom four spot.
Many commentators and media people agreed, with some even suggesting the Roos or even the unformed Tasmanian team would find finals success before Hawthorn – that’s how dire things looked.
Instead, the Hawks are gearing up for a crack at an Elimination Final against the red hot Western Bulldogs, in what will be a Friday night to remember.
The team tasted victory for the first time this year in Round Six against the Kangaroos and since then, had a record of 13 wins and four losses, with a monstrous jump in scoring that saw them reach a percentage of 118!!
While Sam Mitchell’s team is the second youngest in the competition, with an average age of 23.6, this unprecedented finals campaign has come about ahead of schedule, where the club believed that the rebuild would take until 2025 at the earliest and yet here we are.
While the team is incredibly youthful, it is actually littered with survivors from our last finals campaign, who have ridden the bumps with a grin to get back to the big stage of finals football.
For the likes of Jarman Impey, James Sicily, Blake Hardwick, James Worpel, Conor Nash, Jack Gunston, Luke Breust and Harry Morrison, those six years would have felt like the longest wait ever.
Making the finals in 2018 seemed like the team was on the rise again, but fast forward six years and we know that this wasn’t the case.
In that period of time, more than 75% of the list has been turned over!
Huge changes in the coaching ranks, along with administration, have seen the changes continue both on and off the park.
But for the handful of players who are still on the list, the journey hasn’t been a smooth one.
There were significant injuries along the way to Jarman Impey, James Sicily and James Worpel. The mentioned stars missed huge patches through knee and shoulder reconstructions.
Conor Nash was close to the scrap heap before getting a crack in the midfield at Box Hill before being elevated to return as a reinvented footballer and showing all and sundry the importance of using players’ strengths to get the best out of themselves.
The remaining survivors of that finals campaign are chomping at the bit to lead the way for our inexperienced players, in what will be an electric atmosphere as the Hawks look to continue their unprecedented rise in 2024.
The hurt of injuries and the fleeting taste of finals football has them primed to make sure that they make this moment count, because in this game, there are no certainties.
For the young crop of players including Josh Weddle, Connor MacDonald, Nick Watson and Calsher Dear, having these players with finals experience, as well as the likes of Jack Ginnivan, Jack Gunston and Luke Breust, guiding the path will help calm the nerves and allow them to appreciate that nothing is given and everything has to be earned.
Each time these teams have met in a previous finals campaign, either one has gone all the way – could history repeat itself?
With another Elimination Final to be played, after already playing 17 weeks of them since the 0-5 start, the team are happy to do it the hard way, for that is the Hawthorn way.
