Getting it right two years in a row is always a difficult challenge.
It is stating the obvious that St Kilda has replaced Hawthorn as Geelong’s main challenger.
In the search for why, people will say that the Hawks’ demise is caused by the dreaded premiership hangover.
The hangover theory contends that if Hawthorn did not win the grand final then the downturn would not have happened; that a complacent attitude is the reason for the drop in form.
I can tell you that even club insiders would have difficulty making such a subjective judgment call.
What is certain is that physical reasons, namely injuries, have been an enormous negative influence, particularly to their defensive group.
This area of the ground is very dependent on being a very settled team within a team.
Instability in defence always leads to a poor performance.
The 2008 Hawthorn defensive team was incredibly hard to score against, conceding an average nine goals per game in last year’s finals series.
This year they are conceding on average 15 goals per game.
Sometimes people look for the subtle causes rather than the blatantly obvious. The fact is the Hawks’ core defenders are mostly injured and the current inexperienced group are not getting the job done and are leaking like a sieve.
Adding to these issues is that the defensive general Luke Hodge looks like joining Trent Croad, Stephen Gilham, Brent Guerra and Rick Ladson on the sidelines.
This is a gigantic chunk of Hawthorn’s best defence missing from action.
We can muse about premiership hangovers all we like but uncontrollable practical reasons are much more the reasons for Hawthorn’s fall back to the pack.
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
