Review Best. Season. Ever. Except. For. Premiership. Seasons.

[I got the outside word]

Let’s be honest, that whole season as an AFL fan was fantastic but as a Hawthorn fan it was beyond belief.

According to a lot of ‘experts’ and our fans (let’s be honest again) we weren’t expected to get above the bottom 3, some predicting a spoon and one expert (?) even predicting Sam wouldn’t be coach next time we are contending at one point.

I was confident tonight and we lost, but, I am so proud of the effort by everyone involved at the Hawks this year, it’s been ridiculous what we have achieved.

We have built, and we are coming. I don’t know if the next dynasty is upon us but it’s bloody coming very, very soon.

I’d be worried if I wasn’t a Hawk in the coming years.

 

[MasterSamurai]

Agree though we let this one slip.

 

[Books]

Premiership seasons are better but this was great.
Similar to 2006.
Good times ahead... so long as the boys keep working hard.

 

[I wanna pash Nash]

So proud of the boys. Tonight stings.

I think we've really developed a great brand of footy. Watson is everything we hoped he'd be. Dear played a season none of us saw coming. The majority of our younger players took positive steps.

The list will get better with the addition of Barrass and Battle too. Look out 2025!

 

[lethalselbow]

Great season.

Premiership seasons are the best

 

[Davo-27]

It was so much fun watching our hard tackling, run and gun, goal avalanche of a season after like round 7 we were the best team to watch imo and it was nice to get positive media for once, which is rare as a hawk supporter.

Thanx to our team, our social media team and everyone who brought hokball to life.

 

[Billyc]

Agree, great and joyful season. Gutted right now but the season was a treat I didn’t see coming.

 

[Roddy]

So many people out there wishing lack of success on us.

We are the AFL's ULTIMATE tall poppy...

 

[The German Hunter]

I left round 2 this season with my Melbourne supporting father in law and my 3 devoted hawks kids. I honestly thought I couldn’t watch another minute of hawks football. We honestly kick our kick outs backwards. We couldn’t have footballed any worse if we wore a black Herbert with a red sash.

I’m so proud of the playing and coaching group to somehow make us the most exciting team to watch this season. Our media team needs credit because they have connected the team and fans like never before. Supporters of teams who hate us still supported us because we play exiting and attractive football.

A loss tonight hurts, especially when a flog like Hinkley rubs it in. I truely believe this is a game we had to lose to make this team great. I was devastated we gave up a winning grand final in 2012, but I truely believe we would not have seen (debatably) the greatest team to take the field in the following years.

I can tell you that this loss has hit the group hard. Sic is in all sorts. This is the kind of loss that makes team great. With history on our side, we win premierships.

We are spoilt to be hawks supporters, and good luck stopping this team next year!

 

[hawkmang]

100% agree this season was insanely good. Hopefully a sign of things to come over the next few seasons.

I remember being nervous before rd 6 against the roos… would never have imagined we’d come this far!

Go Hok

 

[El Chivo]

What a season! So proud to be a Hawthorn supporter right now. So many positives from the season. Our coach has said many times that we’re far from the finished product, but I dont think its that far off now. Can’t wait for next season. The boys will use this to spur them onto a more determined ‘25.

 

[moginie]

It's not a 2012 or a 1990 or a 1982.

But this is a start from an exciting team. We're spoilt and yet we're aware that this, as crushing as tonight is, is just the beginning.

Give the boys a break now and let's see how things go in November. They deserve it.

 

[Franko Armani]

Great season, very much like 2007.

Losing the EF, prolongs the build and excitement towards our next flag. Winning this year might have been a bit like a premature eject, but now we harden ourselves for the future.

We came from nowhere and plenty of kids announced themselves as future stars.

Only let down were the injuries to injury prone players which hopefully we can insure ourselves against from 2025 onwards.

We should be thereabouts from next year onwards.

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

One thing we have to be prepared for is not getting off to a slow start in 2025 like we did this season. I was one who was irritated by our first 7 rounds, winning only one game against North Melbourne. I felt we should have been doing better in light of the improvement shown late the previous season.

It reminded me of 2018 when we came home strongly in the second half of the season, only to lose our 2 finals to Richmond and Melbourne, and then not even make the top 8 in 2019.

2024 will only be a success if we can build on it and hit the ground running in the top 4 at the end of minor round in 2025. If we drop away, it may be another wasted opportunity. We MUST get off to a good start ... something akin to 2008 when we were 9-0 would be nice

 

[bigmaxi]

The TOTAL win for me is that i have more than double the wins to watch on replay over summer compared to last year. Nothing beats a stinking hot day, icy cold beer and a win from the couch. Go Hawks!

 

[Manila_Hawk]

Apart from the incredible improvement in the game plan and skills this year....
.... we already have Barrass and Battle basically locked away.

Happy times.

 

[cryptor]

It was a pretty amazing evolution for the team over the course of the season. We started off as legitimate spoon contenders and by September we were in the view of many neutral observers the legitimate flag favourites.

I can't recall such a dramatic turn around in form for a team. At least not in the direction of improvement. I'm sure there has been a preseason flag favourite that ended up spoon/bottom 4.

Preseason + R1-R7: Some infrequent periods of good play, weaknesses fully exposed and exploited.

R8-R12: Starting to show that when we can get the game on our terms we're very tough to beat.

R13-R16: GWS win in Tassie was the win that turned neutral heads. Richmond (Dusty 300th) and Eagles (big win on the road) were framed as team maturity tests that we passed with flying colours.

R17: Reality check and a fork in the road. Many neutrals wrote us off as a finals possibility at this point.

R18-R24: The team chose the path to fight for finals and were emphatic in many wins. Really built our credentials during this period and popularised hokball.

EF-SF: Proved we are a serious final contender with a convincing EF win against a flag favourite and almost stole a SF win in a game that was never played on our terms.

 

[Nathan Detroit]

The TOTAL win for me is that i have more than double the wins to watch on replay over summer compared to last year. Nothing beats a stinking hot day, icy cold beer and a win from the couch. Go Hawks!

Same except it will be winter here. I feel a good Doppelbock by a warm fire beats hot day anytime LOL

 

[Fastback]

Mitch and the boys know they could have and should have progressed further. Just listening to Mitchell's disappointment and focus on the job at hand in interviews post the semi gives me a lot of confidence in this group. Great season yes but what could have been. Keep the bar set high boys.

 

[Roddy]

Mitch and the boys know they could have and should have progressed further. Just listening to Mitchell's disappointment and focus on the job at hand in interviews post the semi gives me a lot of confidence in this group. Great season yes but what could have been. Keep the bar set high boys.

I doubt he’d be entertaining too much in the way of coulda shoulda woulda’s….

 

[Walshawk]

Brilliant season.
We are better on paper in 2025, but may take a little while to gel. Our draw will be slightly more difficult, but I will be disappointed if we don’t make a prelim.

 

[toomanysquibs]

It's never a certainty that you get to a Semi in any year.

I feel that we squandered an opportunity to have a crack and getting through Sydney at the SCG, and then head back home to take on the Lions in Melbourne for a flag. Lot of if in that though I guess.

If we were unlucky, it was that Port had been put under a blowtorch and produced their biggest effort game of the season.

That they fell so flat in Sydney 7 days later is indicative of a performance won on emotion and not talent.

It's hard to not be excited by this year. But I think the aftertaste from the way it ended, particularly in Luke Breust

22

Luke Breust

Age

33

Ht

182cm

Wt

82kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

14.6

4star

K

8.0

3star

HB

6.7

4star

M

3.4

3star

T

4.0

5star

G

1.9

5star

D

10.0

3star

K

6.0

2star

HB

4.0

3star

M

1.3

1star

T

4.8

5star

G

1.5

5star

D

9.8

3star

K

6.0

3star

HB

3.8

3star

M

2.4

3star

T

2.8

5star

G

1.8

5star

's 300th game is a pretty big disappointment.

The off week was always going to come perhaps. But we were right there with one foot in the door at the death of season 2024.

I have faith that we will lift another cog in 2025.

We do have as good as shot as any team based on what we saw this year. Perhaps we're even on the front row of the grid in that respect.

 

[pd_89]

Ah I was wondering where to pose this question but I guess I'll do it here.

Which regular season games did you think were the best games for us this season and why? Purely your opinion and no right or wrong!

Edit: me personally it was the game against the Pies. It had a finals like context to it and the football we played was just exhilarating.

 

[cryptor]

Ah I was wondering where to pose this question but I guess I'll do it here.

Which regular season games did you think were the best games for us this season and why? Purely your opinion and no right or wrong!

Edit: me personally it was the game against the Pies. It had a finals like context to it and the football we played was just exhilarating.

That Pies game is right up there given both clubs finals hopes were on the line, and particularly how we played skillful, fast paced football so well in wet conditions. Also satisfying seeing Ginnivan put in a career best performance against them.

But I think perhaps the following week against Adelaide at AO is underrated. Crows weren't travelling too badly at the time. They'd come close against Brisbane at the Gabba, put Saints away by 5 goals at home who had just beaten the Swans, and then a win on the road against Essendon. They also came within a kick of beating Geelong at GMHBA and put the Bulldogs away by 39 in the two weeks after.

We'd got a big win on the road against the Eagles after the bye but this was a much bigger victory given the Crows are a far better side than the Eagles and were performing pretty well during that period. We blitzed them when I think a 4 goal victory would've been seen as a good win against the Crows at home.

 

[TheFourPillars]

The two games that were big wins for me were the first GWS win after which I declared the lid was off. Then backed up by the Fremantle win. That was also a big win given the nature of the game.