Kane Cornes did not hold back in his questioning of Hawthorn president Andy Gowers on Tuesday night, asking him what Hawks fans had to look forward to in 2023.
The Hawks are projected to finish in the bottom four after trading out senior players, with a lengthy rebuild sitting in front of them.
When discussing the club’s off-season decision making on SEN’s Spotsday, Cornes put the tough question to Gowers.
“It’s nice in theory and we’ve seen clubs try to do it and they rebuild and Adelaide is in year four and North Melbourne have done it, Carlton have done it, many clubs have done it,” Cornes said.
“But how do you bring fans along for the ride? You’ve got a fixture that is irrelevant, there’s no primetime games, three games at the MCG before Round 15, I believe you’re going to lose a lot of games and you’ve documented the reasons why – how do you bring the fans along for the ride?”
Gowers said he hopes members pay close attention to the growth of the club’s younger players across the season, but admits there will be some turbulence at times.
“The thing about a young side is you look for the growth and the growth necessarily in a win. We know that. There’s no question about it. Anyone who thinks otherwise is probably delusional,” Gowers said.
“We know we’re probably in for a really exciting ride. We’ll have our challenges, we’ll have our downs, we question things, but I think overall the strategy is – let’s grow our next golden era. Let’s go get the best kids we can.
“We just drafted two kids in the top 20 for the time since 2005. There are things we are doing now that we haven’t done in a long time.
“Our last golden era was built in the early 2000s and this is an era that we’re building upon again. We’re looking to repeat history.
“We’re not saying it’s going to be all beer and Skittles. There will be challenges. There will be losses. There will be down periods, but I think if our members and fans can see A) the strategy we’re embarking on and B) the growth and the development in our junior players, then they’re going to get a glimpse of our future and our future is really exciting.”
Compounding things for the Hawks is key forward Mitchell Lewis suffering a sprained ACL injury at training.
Gowers confirmed that they expect him to return during the 2023 season, adding that he will not require surgery.
“We don’t think that (surgery) will be necessary,” he said.
“Dylan Moore had a very similar injury last year and didn’t have surgery and finished off the year very strongly.
“That is our expectation and hope that the same thing will happen here with Mitch.”
Hawthorn will take on Geelong on February 23rd in an unofficial practice match, before facing Collingwood in Tasmania on March 2nd in another one.