News Congratulations to Hawthorn's newest captain - Ben Stratton - may your reign be long and glorious

[TylerDurden]

 

[smeltitdeltit]

Mclure is also besties with Lewis so probably biased there (in regards to an error in moving on Lewis/hodge/Mitchell)
If those 3 only Lewis is still playing now hodge retired from us
Mitchel is 2 years retired

And Lewis will be retired this time next year and is a liability to Melbourne.
I agree there’s a leadership void, but that’s a result from sustained success and having a core group of leaders at the same age.

 

[MistyAvalon]

I am just stunned. one of our best mates supports the drugcheats.....He said, well that is not like Strats at all. I cant be bothered over pinching ffs it goes on all the time, they are always sledging and pushing and shoving eachother, of course there will be bruises

but stomping on someone, I must have been pouring some wine while that happened... did he really do it deliberately, or was it the ess bloke carrying on....

 

[Ron The Bear]

Who has been Hawthorn's acting captain in the past two games?

 

[MrPremiership]

Who has been Hawthorn's acting captain in the past two games?

Gunners. VC

 

[Manila_Hawk]

I must say...

Earlier in the year, Stratts was embarrassing. Poor form, bad attitude... culminating in the pinchy/stompy fiasco.

But.... since that time, he has been back to his best. Rarely beaten, strong overhead and linking up !

Was the kick up the ar*e he needed.

 

[Simon Crawshay]

I must say...

Earlier in the year, Stratts was embarrassing. Poor form, bad attitude... culminating in the pinchy/stompy fiasco.

But.... since that time, he has been back to his best. Rarely beaten, strong overhead and linking up !

Was the kick up the ar*e he needed.

He has definetly been better since coming back from suspension but still a bit off his best form though. Not taking enough contested grabs for me which was historically his strength.

 

[TylerDurden]

DJing at the GF parade today.

 

[I got the outside word]

I think from memory Sam Mitchell’s game was down a little while being captain. Relinquished the captaincy and thrived again.

Correct me if I am wrong though.

 

[Symons]

I think from memory Sam Mitchell’s game was down a little while being captain. Relinquished the captaincy and thrived again.

Correct me if I am wrong though.

I think this is sort of correct - if I recall correctly, Mitchell had a form slump during 2010, but he was playing injured (without it being common knowledge). It coincides with when the media were fawning over Hodge (rightfully so, given his form at the time!) and kept referring to him as the spiritual leader. It got to the point where it was almost embarrassing to listen to, given that Mitchell had been a strong captain in his own right - the commentators were practically begging Hawthorn to hand over the captaincy.

Ironically, if I remember rightly, Mitchell bounced back - and in 2012, there was the turnaround; Hodge was suffering from injury, whilst Mitchell was a consistent performer - and then the media were full of, "Well, he was a captain for a reason."

It's a common problem in sport, where the stress of the captaincy is too much on top of everything else - and Mitchell did have a young family at home and other pressures - but I think in both of their cases, it had nothing to do with the captaincy, but was wholly injury related.

 

[MrPremiership]

I think from memory Sam Mitchell’s game was down a little while being captain. Relinquished the captaincy and thrived again.

Correct me if I am wrong though.

won a flag as captain to be fair

 

[Aramis]

I think from memory Sam Mitchell’s game was down a little while being captain. Relinquished the captaincy and thrived again.

Correct me if I am wrong though.

Mitchell was a great "inner club captain", his true value as captain was nuanced. I think Hodgey was more your marketable outward-facing leader type who really embraced the "spiritual leader" role... But really they were both important and both laid important bricks in the wall of the 07-16 era.

 

[GAS PANIC]

I think the Mitchell played better when not captain stuff was predominantly media driven. We struggled following the 08 flag due to a variety of reasons. Hodge not being captain I don't believe was one of them.