Hawthorn has started the year competitively despite being 1-3 and fought hard in their loss to Fremantle on Sunday.
However, Kane Cornes is concerned about what the future holds for the Hawks and he can see them heading down the same path as North Melbourne.
After years in the middle of the pack and competing in finals, the Roos committed to a full rebuild and now find themselves last on the ladder with a percentage of 43 after four rounds.
“Hawthorn are going to fly under the radar this week, but I want to put them on the radar. Are Hawthorn in danger of being North Melbourne in three years?” Cornes asked on SEN Breakfast.
“North Melbourne were middle of the road for a long time, suffered from not having those top draft picks because of the way the system is designed.
“They are well coached, they give serious effort, I watched them yesterday and you can’t question their effort, you can’t question the coaching, you fight back when you’re under the pump, but they have more B-graders in their side than any team.
“I reckon they’re so similar to North Melbourne (three years ago). They have the least amount of A-grade talent under 25 in the competition, the Hawks.”
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Tim Watson believes the Hawks simply must commit to bringing youngsters in.
“They have to go to the draft, don’t they? Philosophically they’ve been opposed to that and topping up with players and bringing experienced players in, but they haven’t been able to do that in recent times.”
To which Cornes replied: “It’s North Melbourne. It’s Aaron Hall, it’s Jasper Pittard, it’s Jared Polec, it’s these players … it’s Kyle Hartigan, it’s Sam Frost, it’s Jaeger O’Meara, they are B-grade players coming into a side that is desperate.”
“Other than Will Day, who will be a star, and Denver Grainger-Barras who we haven’t seen yet, who’s the next one? Changkuoth Jiath can absolutely be an A-grader, but wasn’t a high draft pick.
“Who else? I look at James Worpel, O’Meara, Tom Mitchell with Ben McEvoy, that’s their midfield and that’s not going to get it done.”
The Hawks take on the undefeated Demons on the MCG next Sunday.