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IT'S DOUBTFUL a defending premier has had more thrown at it and still clinched back-to-back flags.
Hawthorn football manager Chris Fagan described the 12 months following the Hawks' 2013 Grand Final triumph over Fremantle as "crazy" and it's hard to argue with him.
First, little more than a week after the Hawks' win over the Dockers, star spearhead Lance Franklin was being paraded around in his new city, Sydney, in his new club colours, the Swans' red and white.
Hawthorn and coach Alastair Clarkson had been preparing for Franklin's probable departure for most of 2013, with Clarkson playing his spearhead further up the ground in a bid to reduce his team's dependence on him.
But Clarkson and the Hawks could not prepare themselves for the litany of challenges that were thrown at them once the 2014 season got underway.
Their injury list at times made War and Peace seem like a short read.
Sam Mitchell, Brian Lake, Cyril Rioli, Brad Sewell, Josh Gibson and Ben Stratton all suffered long-term injuries.
Early in the season, the absences of Lake, Stratton and Ryan Schoenmakers in defence meant 187cm defender Kyle Cheney was forced to play on power forwards such as Tom Hawkins, Jonathan Brown, Matthew Pavlich and Jake Carlisle.
But worse was to come when Clarkson was hospitalised with the auto-immune condition Guillain-Barré syndrome and missed rounds 11-15, with assistant Brendon Bolton stepping up to fill his shoes.
Somehow the Hawks found a way.
Somehow they clinched back-to-back flags for just the second time in their history, the first coming in 1988-89 when there were just 14 teams in the competition and the gravitational effect of the draft was yet to really kick in.
Fagan spoke to AFL.com.au after the Hawks' commanding 63-point win over the Sydney Swans at the MCG on Saturday.
The Hawks footy boss paid tribute to the players' "amazing performance", but said the Hawks had only survived the year and emerged triumphant because the entire club had pulled together.
"It's been a crazy year with I guess all the things that happened, which at stages threatened to derail our season," Fagan said.
"But credit to the players, credit to everybody at the club for the way they all rallied around that situation.
"There's a lot of pride here. There was a really strong will to want to back up and go again after last year and they've been able to see it through, which is just fantastic for the group."
Fagan agreed that it was getting harder for teams to stay at the top of the premiership heap given the opposition analysis that goes into picking apart the competition benchmark each year.
The Hawks footy boss said it was a credit to Clarkson and his coaching team that they were able to continue to stay ahead of the competition curve.
"They think about the game deeply and coach our players well and our players embrace their instructions really well," Fagan said.
WATCH: The Hawks soak it up as the siren sounds
The Hawks have now won three premierships since 2008 and are rivalling the Cats (2007, 2009 and 2011) for the title of the most dominant team since the Brisbane Lions' 2001-2003 premiership era.
Fagan paid tribute to list manager Graham Wright and his recruiting team for their ability to help keep the Hawks up when conventional draft wisdom suggests they should be coming down the ladder.
In addition to good drafting, the Hawks have been very targeted at the trade table since the 2008 flag.
Shaun Burgoyne, Josh Gibson, David Hale, Jack Gunston, Brian Lake, Matt Spangher and Ben McEvoy were the primary acquisitions.
All seven players played against the Swans on Saturday, all seven helping to fill previous holes on the Hawks' list.
"There are a lot of pieces to the jigsaw puzzle, but our recruiting and list management has been outstanding," Fagan said.
"Graham Wright and his team have done some great work there.
"In addition to all the guys we got in through trades, we got Will Langford off the rookie list, a New South Wales rookie.
"So it's come from all different directions, but it takes good research and patience to find those guys."
Having gone back-to-back, Fagan said the Hawks had no intention of coming back to the pack in 2015 and were already advanced in their quest for a third consecutive flag.
"If you want to stay a high-performing club, you've got to have one eye on the here and now and one eye over the horizon," Fagan said.
"I think that one of the things that we've always been able to do well is to look forward and to keep planning, and keep trying to find ways to overcome a system that says you've got to go down before you come back up.
"Hopefully we can keep doing that."
