Newly appointed Hawthorn captain James Sicily feels indebted to the Hawks.
Having developed into a star of the competition since being taken with pick No. 56 in the 2013 National Draft, Sicily says he has the club to thank for making him the player he now is.
Sicily paid Hawthorn back by turning his back on free agency to ink a five-year deal last season, effectively becoming a Hawk for life with the deal expiring when he’s 33 years old.
While the Hawks have since committed to a full rebuild following Sicily’s committal, the defender says he would have signed that deal no matter the circumstances at Waverley Park.
“Even if I signed the deal post-trade period (with several senior players departing), I still would have done it,” Sicily told SEN Breakfast.
“I feel like I’m very indebted to Hawthorn and I’ve said this a couple of times, I feel genuinely about that if I was at any other club, I don’t think I would have really made it.
“They showed incredible patience and I wasn’t thrown in the deep end, I had so much to learn.
“On the contract question, I still would have stayed.”
With Sicily’s deal taking him to the end of the 2027 season, the 28-year-old was asked whether he could see the Hawks winning a premiership between now and then despite the club being considered a long shot to play finals in 2023.
“In terms of a premiership, that’s what we’re all striving for and I think we can,” Sicily replied.
“Clubs are showing how fast they can turn it around, (look at) Sydney and Collingwood.
“They had reasonably low expectations last year Collingwood and some in the footy realm had them for the wooden spoon.
“Sydney not too long ago in 2019 were down in the bottom four and now they were in a Grand Final.
“I think if we do it right we’ve got the right people in the footy club to support us as a playing group, we’re going to give ourselves every chance to challenge once we get games into these young guys and become really predictable to each other.”
One reason why Sicily is confident in his side’s ability to rebound is their young midfield and the defender is liking the look of the on-ball mix as several young players gel.
“Worps (James Worpel) looks back confident in himself again and Jai (Newcombe) obviously broke onto the scene last year,” Sicily said.
“They’re two really hard working guys and they’re really physical and we love that.
“Two other guys that are playing pretty well are Cam McKenzie and Josh Ward.
“Having two bulls in there (in Worpel and Newcombe) will really compliment those other two guys who are really good users of the ball along with Will Day.
“I think we’re putting together quite a good midfield there.”
While the likes of Tom Mitchell, Jaeger O’Meara, Ben McEvoy and Liam Shiels left the club in the off-season, Sicily believes the Hawks can at least match last year’s win-loss total of 8-14 which saw them finish 13th.
“I’d like to think we can back up last year’s result,” Sicily said.
“We lost two games in one quarter last year where we conceded like 50 points in one quarter.
“All of the sudden we’re looking at 10 wins and you’re only one or two wins off playing finals.
“I’d like to replicate last year’s season, we’ve seen some genuine progress with how we want to play … there’s so many new young guys that are ready to step up and play.
“It’s really exciting.”
Sicily gets his first chance to lead out Hawthorn officially as captain when they face Essendon at the MCG on March 19.
