WHEN Hawthorn faces off against Richmond in Sunday's final-round NAB AFLW clash, every Hawks player – women's and men's – will be extra-invested in the outcome.
Not only is the AFLW minor premiership and on the line for the Hawks, but a win will see the bolters of the 2024 AFLW season claim the McClelland Trophy for the best-performed club across the men's and women's seasons.
And that honour comes with a hefty $1 million prize, with the men's and women's players to share equally in $500,000 and the remainder to go into club coffers.
But if the Tigers upset the Hawks at the Swinburne Centre, and the Lions see off St Kilda earlier in the day, the prizemoney will be heading north to Brisbane.
Hawthorn AFLW skipper Emily Bates said there was an extra buzz around the club during the week with the men's players hoping their AFLW counterparts could secure an early Christmas present for the club.
Without counting her proverbial chickens before they hatched, Bates said she'd already thought about how she'd spend the money.
"I've just bought a house and I've got a big mortgage, so I think it'd be going straight to that," she told The W Show.
"Not looking too far ahead, obviously, but we're really excited about the opportunity. If you told us at the start of the year that we'd be playing off for $1 million, we probably wouldn't believe you.
"It's funny, the boys were in the club yesterday, and all of a sudden they were really excited to see us play on Sunday. James Sicily was telling me he's got bills to pay.
"But we're really excited about the opportunity and the pressure that comes with it – heading into our first finals series, that's pressure galore, it's make-or-break, do or die."
Meanwhile, Bates revealed the big evolution in AFLW that the Hawks have embraced on their road to a top-two finish this season.
Nine seasons into the development of the elite women's league, it's no longer enough to have a squad of stars – teams need to have a gameplan to match.
Hawthorn skipper Bates has missed just one game in her career, having started in 2017 with Brisbane.
She's also seen first-hand the changes in the Hawks under new coach Daniel Webster.
"I think it's more system-based footy," Bates said.
"Early years of AFLW, it was a lot of game style, and you wanted to move the ball a certain way, but you probably didn't set the field a certain way to allow it.
"Now, it's real system-based, just like the men's, I guess. You defend as a system, you attack, you know where each other are because of this system, as opposed to more of a game style.
"That's the big evolution I've seen. But there's also been skill development – you might have a certain way you want to play, but if your players can't hit those certain kicks and generate uncontested marks, then there's no use having that game style.
"Even 'D-Web', the way he would film a lot of our kicks in the pre-season, and make these little tweaks to make sure we actually had the skills to implement this game plan, it just shows his dedication and eye for detail."
