HAWTHORN has found an unconventional midfield workaround.
The Hawks might have won just once all season, kept from the bottom of the ladder by percentage only, but dig a little deeper and the seeds of progression have been planted and are evident in the side's strong midfield group.
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An unlikely onball mix consisting of James Worpel, Will Day, Jai Newcombe and Conor Nash have propelled Hawthorn to a host of promising performances, with the rebuilding side losing the clearance battle only twice all year.
Collectively, they have provided a big tick for the start of Sam Mitchell's overhaul. But individually they have also expelled doubts, enhanced expectations and justified the faith placed in them by the club.
Hawthorn's decision to part with experienced midfield talent such as 2018 Brownlow Medal winner Tom Mitchell, as well as Jaeger O'Meara, might have raised eyebrows late last season. But the club's new-look midfield quartet has provided the rebuilding group with a promising foundation to build from.
The key aspects to that have been Worpel's return to form, Day's emergence as a quality outside midfielder, Newcombe's continual improvement and Nash's recent and unexpected injection of toughness around the ball.
Worpel, the club's 2019 best and fairest, had started to look a shadow of the player he had once promised to be. Managing just seven games last year, and none after April, the hardened clearance winner appeared to have been cast aside from Mitchell's plans and had even been raised by rival clubs as a potential trade target.
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However, suddenly, the 24-year-old is back to the type of form that once saw him claim the Peter Crimmins Medal and is averaging career-highs in contested possessions (12.9 per game), clearances (6.7 per game) and score involvements (5.1 per game).
Worpel had endured a three-year dip. His disposal numbers had plummeted from 26.5 per game in 2019, to an average of 19.2 per game between 2020-22, but are now steadily increasing back to 23.6 per game this season.
That's reflected across the board. He is now back above 12 contested possessions per game, after dropping to 8.4 per game from 2020-22, and he is back to averaging above six clearances per game after dipping to 3.5 per game from 2020-22. His score involvements have also soared back above five per game again, after falling to 3.9 per game during that three-season stretch.
According to Champion Data, Worpel now ranks as an 'above average' player again for contested ball and clearances. Meanwhile, his AFL Player Ratings Points (13.9 per game) also rate 'above average' and are at career-best levels.
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Newcombe has provided the perfect foil to Worpel as an inside ball-winner. Among the most notable success stories from the 2021 mid-season draft, where he was recruited from the club's VFL affiliate Box Hill as a 19-year-old, he has emerged as one of the AFL's most promising young midfielders.
Coming off a season where he was voted as the AFL Coaches Association's Best Young Player, Newcombe doesn't necessarily jump off the page from a stats perspective. However, his ability to do a little bit of everything – and to do it well – has put him among an impressive group of peers.
Champion Data notes that Newcombe is performing 36 per cent above expectation this season. It's the second-highest relative rating – a metric that compares your performance to expectation based on position and age – behind only Fremantle's star youngster Caleb Serong (50 per cent above expectation) for all midfielders under 26 years old.
It also puts Newcombe fractionally ahead of some quality names including Gold Coast's former No.2 pick Noah Anderson (35 per cent above expectation), Brisbane father-son gun Will Ashcroft (33 per cent) and Port Adelaide star Connor Rozee (31 per cent).
Nash is the most recent addition to the side's midfield group, having only been added to the quartet over the last three weeks, but the Irishman is providing yet another hardened option.
Although the sample size is small, Champion Data notes that the versatile and big-bodied Nash has rated 'above average' across the competition for disposals (28.3 per game), contested possessions (14 per game), clearances (5.3 per game), tackles (6.3 per game) and pressure points (55.6 per game) during that three-week block.
His ability to perform a number of key shutdown roles on Greater Western Sydney jet Tom Green, Adelaide skipper Jordan Dawson and Western Bulldogs superstar Marcus Bontempelli in that stretch have only further emphasised his growing importance within the team's burgeoning midfield group.
The bash and crash nature of Worpel and Newcombe, combined with the inside pressure of Nash, has then found its ideal complement in the outside class of Day, another new introduction into Hawthorn's midfield group.
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Recruited as a half-back flanker with pick No.13 in the 2019 national draft, Day has become a nicely built midfielder capable of finding the footy and using his quality to great effect forward of centre.
Champion Data notes that Day has a contested possession rate of just 35 per cent, well below that of Worpel (54 per cent), Newcombe (48 per cent) and Nash (44 per cent). But he still rates 'above average' for disposals (25.8 per game) and uncontested possessions (16.8 per game) while ranking 'elite' for marks (6.4 per game).
Collectively, the impressive quartet have provided Hawthorn with a nice start to its rebuild and have given Mitchell and the team's list management group a promising midfield foundation to continue filling out in the years ahead.
With recent early selections such as Cam Mackenzie (pick No.7 in the 2022 draft), Josh Weddle (pick No.18 in 2022), Josh Ward (pick No.7 in 2021) and Connor Macdonald (pick No.26 in 2021) likely to see more midfield minutes soon – and with more top-end selections expected to arrive later this year – the future looks bright for the Hawks.
