Hawthorn legend Luke Hodge has given his thoughts on the club’s veteran exodus over the off-season.
During the trade period, the Hawks moved Tom Mitchell, Jaeger O’Meara and Jack Gunston on, skipper Ben McEvoy retired and Liam Shiels, Daniel Howe and Kyle Hartigan also departed.
The club heads into 2023 with the youngest list in the AFL, but Hodge believes the pathway mirrors the one he and coach Sam Mitchell went through under Alastair Clarkson.
“I’m not surprised that they went the way that they did. I know Sam Mitchell pretty well and he’s not just going to sit back and hope things happen. He wants to build a list to play his style,” Hodge told SEN’s Sportsday.
“Making the decisions that they did, we saw the game against Essendon last year where they were up by 40-odd points. Essendon started to come back and Sam decided he wasn’t going to put Jaeger O’Meara or Tom Mitchell in the middle, they stayed forward and it was the younger guys in there to show them that this is the only way the team is going to get better – by giving responsibility to young guys so they can learn faster.
“That’s how we learned coming through. Alastair Clarkson gave a lot of responsibility to Sam Mitchell and Brad Sewell and myself. I’m not surprised that they’ve cleaned out these older guys to give the young guys experience, but in saying that there is going to be some tough times for them.
“A young playing group does need some senior guys around them and if you look who Hawthorn has lost over the last three years, they’ve lost a couple of captains in Ben Stratton and Ben McEvoy, you’ve lost Shaun Burgoyne, Isaac Smith, Liam Shiels, Jack Gunston, O’Meara, Mitchell – all of those guys have been either captain or in the leadership group at some stage.
“You feel for the new captain – which I’m thinking it’s going to be James Sicily, hopefully he can talk to a few guys and past players to help him along the way.”
Hodge elaborated on his endorsement for James Sicily as Hawthorn’s next captain.
“Watching him develop, a lot of people see how he is on the footy field, but knowing what he has done off the field to mature as a player and a person, I just think he’s got control out during the game,” the former skipper said.
“Yes he goes over the top at times and I think a lot of leaders can do that to set the tempo for their players, but if you look at the group with the guys who have left, there’s Luke Breust who has been there for a long time, but Sicily is someone who is going to be there for a long time and playing across half back, he’s a leader, he stands up, he’s not afraid to shirk a contest and I know that he’s spending a lot of time with Sam and helping with the leadership side of things.
“I know personally having Mitchell there for me when I was captain was invaluable. He was so good to talk to and bounce things off because he’s so smart.”
Sicily would be Hawthorn’s third captain since 2020, following the retirements of Stratton and McEvoy.