Hawthorn’s disappointing trade period left many members of their playing group in limbo, having been offered up in trade talks in order to accelerate the club's rebuild.
Under new coach Sam Mitchell, the Hawks were on the record suggesting they’d be happy to entertain any offer if it could improve their 2021 draft hand as they look to rebuild in the post-Alastair Clarkson era.
However, numerous deals did not go through for multiple reasons - including some players insisting on staying at Hawthorn – which led to beliefs the club and playing group could be fractured when coming back for pre-season.
In a recent interview with 7 News, Hawthorn vice-captain Jaeger O’Meara suggested it was tough for his teammates to deal with the constant speculation.
“I made the odd phone call to Sam (Mitchell) to ask what was up,“ O’Meara said.
“Unless they were pushing me out the door and getting a high draft pick and it worked for the club... then maybe I might entertain it.
“I've got two years left on my contract and I'm really happy at Hawthorn.”
“The guys that were sitting around here in Melbourne unfortunately read a fair bit more than what I did over there.
“It was nice to be back in WA and kind of removed a little bit from it.”
Speaking on SEN Breakfast, co-hosts Kane Cornes and Josh Jenkins debated how motivated senior Hawks will be for the upcoming season.
Cornes implied it will be difficult for players to inspire themselves knowing they have “zero chance” of any success in 2022.
“You can read as much or as little into that comment (of O’Meara’s) as you like … this is why I’m fascinated by Hawthorn, you’ve got a team with a lot of senior players that have zero chance to win a premiership while they are still at that club,” Cornes said.
“You’ve got the club that was very happy to shop them around in the trade period and try and force them out the door to accelerate this rebuild and were unsuccessful in doing so and getting anything happening during the trade period.
“Now they have to turn up for day one of preseason at a club they know they have zero chance of not only winning a premiership, but not even playing a final.
“How is that going to go down?”
In response, Jenkins suggested senior players should be “more than willing” to help out the club they’ve had so much success at.
He pointed to Jack Gunston and Luke Breust – two players who have had incredible success at the Hawks but were reportedly floated on the trade table last year – as ones who need to change their focus at the club.
“O’Meara is different because he hasn’t won a premiership, but if I put myself in the shoes of Jack Gunston and Luke Breust in particular, they’ve got four premierships,” Jenkins responded.
“This is just the evolution, isn’t it? It’s now their turn to say, ‘Look, we’ve had our success, we’re incredibly fortunate to have played in four premierships, now the responsibility for us is to help fast-track the young guys so that they have a chance of winning four premierships'.
“When you’ve got three premierships in your pocket you should be more than willing to stay there and help the rest of the group develop and experience what you’ve experienced.”
The Hawks will be boosted by the return of intercepting defender James Sicily in 2022 after an ACL injury, while Mitchell will also have three 2021 top 30 draft picks at his disposals in Josh Ward, Sam Butler and Connor MacDonald.