And so it might seem after Hawthorn demolished the Sydney Swans.
 
But Hawthorn's premiership wasn't just won with tactical nous on the day.
 
Hawthorn won because it coached talent to stay ahead of the game, preparing the group to perform at the pointy end when a premiership is on the line.
 

Put simply Hawthorn used the ball well, won it back when it lost it and converted its chances.
 
It was a triumph for three-time premiership coach Alastair Clarkson and a club with a team ethic that is second to none.
 
The destruction began at the stoppages.
 
Hawthorn's ruckmen neutralised their opponent in the air (choosing to play the big bodied Ben McEvoy rather than Jonathan Ceglar) and left the battle to its ground forces.
 

At centre bounces Hawthorn used 27 different combinations compared to the Swans' 20.
 
No one combination was used more than three times, whereas Sydney threw Mike Pyke, Ben McGlynn, Josh Kennedy and Luke Parker in the middle seven times.
 
Although Hawthorn lost the centre bounce clearance count it won the war, scoring 4.1 (25) from centre bounces compared to the Swans' 1.2 (8).
 
Hawthorn has a genius at stoppages, Sam Mitchell, but it also had a terrier at the opening bounce in Cyril Rioli.
 
During the first quarter Rioli had one Swans player after another looking like the driver of a getaway car with the key stuck in the ignition.
 

His mere presence created enough fear for fumbles to happen. The Hawks had set him for this one run and he exploded like a group one sprinter first up.
 
Hawthorn also blocked the back exit from stoppages.
 
It is the Swans' habit to feed the ball out of the back of the stoppage by hand and then explode from the stoppage.
 
But Hawthorn hunted the receiver and made it impossible for the Swans midfield to find its rhythm. If the stoppage was a centre bounce it was Shaun Burgoyne and Grant Birchall doing the hunting. 
 
If it was at a stoppage around the ground it was Bradley Hill, Paul Puopolo, Luke Breust and of course, Rioli sweating on the receiver.
 
At quarter-time, Hawthorn, the lowest tackling team in the competition leading into the finals, had posted 22 tackles to the Sydney Swans' seven.
 
It was a facet of the game that Hawthorn had focused on towards the end of the season. Liam Shiels told AFL.com.au the club decided it needed to improve in that area.
 
"[We] had a focus at training to really nail those tackles because we know in big games if we're not nailing those tackles we're probably not going to get the result we're after," Shiels said.
 
Hawthorn also knew that if it could unseat this defensive and offensive strategy of the Swans and break through its defensive line, it could find runners ahead of the ball who could score.
 
That has been Hawthorn's strong suit all year but it was able to do so in a Grand Final, releasing runners like a soccer-midfield releases strikers forward of the ball.
 
So quickly and efficiently did it move the ball – its disposal efficiency was 78 per cent – it ended with 64 inside 50s to the Swans' 44.
 
It exposed the Swans' defenders taking 17 marks inside 50s and having 32 scoring shots to 19.
 
Alastair Clarkson's pre-season prediction that attack would fight back and take the game into its next phase was coming to fruition.
 
This was different because rather than attacking through the corridor the Hawks spread like the ripples of a pond.
 
This spread allowed them to use their feet to flick the ball back and across and wide, using the entire ground, occasionally kicking at right angles (refer to Matthew Suckling as the finest exponent) and putting handballs out wide.

They had 300 uncontested possessions to the Swans' 163, 175 handball receives to the Swans' 102 and 98 uncontested marks to the Swans' 46.
 
This was strategic thinking at its finest, a plan devised three years ago and perfected over time.
 
That Hawthorn could stay ahead of the curve was because its defence was evolving.
 
It has a system that relies on coordination between teammates.
 
The moves are choreographed and then practised before becoming instinctive. On Grand Final day, with the midfield doing its job the defenders were rarely caught one on one.
 
WATCH: The Hawks soak it up as the siren sounds

Brian Lake pushed deep and Matt Spangher, Luke Hodge or Josh Gibson controlled the space ahead of the attacking opposition runner. 
 
Spangher showed the value of the hard working, big-bodied stopper that makes sacrificial acts for the good of the team.
 
It crowded the corridor and forced the Swans to go up the line repeatedly.
 
How often were the Sydney Swans kicking long to crowds rather than taking the option through the middle?
 
When they did take the risk up the guts it was inevitably spoiled, the turnover happening forward of the centre and creating enough confusion for Jarryd Roughead to lead into space.
 
Shiels said they wanted to clog up the corridor to stop Sydney's run.
 
"It's something we've been working on all year, our defensive action," Liam Shiels said. 

"It's probably the best we've done it all year."
 
Outnumbering opponents at the ball requires hard running and the versatility to venture into parts of the ground that might not be natural.
 
Luke Breust said it took time to build confidence in a variety of areas but it was critical to making the team hard to play against.
 
Rarely would the same names be in the same areas of the ground, with forwards pushing back and midfielders capable of playing anywhere.
 
Asked for an adjective to describe the effort, Clarkson, the Kaniva boy, struggled to find one word that was sufficient.
 
However he managed a sentence that captured the feeling when a team gets it right strategically and tactically.  
 
"[It's] satisfaction for a lot of hard work by a lot of people at a great club," Clarkson said.