“This is kind of opening up for them”: Why Brereton can see Hawthorn winning the flag

Hawthorn legend Dermott Brereton is loving what he’s seeing from his former side.

Sam Mitchell’s Hawks have won nine of their last 11 games to rocket into September contention as their most recent result – which was a 112-38 win over Carlton – put them into eighth with two games remaining.

With fixtures against Richmond (18th) and North Melbourne (17th) remaining in the season’s final fortnight, the Hawks look destined to play finals for the first time since 2018.

Brereton thinks that Hawthorn’s emergence has come off the back of their quick ball movement and running capacity which he feels is simply taxing opponents who can’t keep up with them.

“The flavour of the moment is Hawthorn,” Brereton told SEN’s Dwayne’s World.

“Nobody taxes the opposition with run more than Hawthorn. They are so quick at moving the ball at the moment unless they seize up, a bit like they did against the Giants and like they did against Port Adelaide.

“In these types of moments in games when they’re learning – they seized up – but it’s got nothing to do with their ability to run.

“Should they keep running and have the bravery to do it (they can win it all) and I tend to think they're learning on the run as quick as any team I've ever seen.

“They will keep taxing opposition teams.”

With this season as even as we’ve seen for some time, Brereton thinks that things are even opening up for the Hawks in regard to a flag tilt and he thinks that Sam Mitchell’s side is good enough to win the premiership this campaign.

Brereton considers both Brisbane (5th) and GWS (3rd) as teams that are more likely to win the flag than Hawthorn, but apart from that, he thinks his former side are every chance.

“This is kind of opening up for them now,” Brereton said.

“First of all, I was hoping they'd win seven to eight games for the year, and I thought, ‘That's an improvement’.

“Yeah, they can (win the flag). I would say that Brisbane’s ahead of them and I’d say perhaps the Giants are because of their contest game.

“I'm a person who looks at stats and says, ‘That makes sense’, but analysts live by the statistical data.

“I don’t (live by stats), I look at what I see.”

Hawthorn’s next game comes against Richmond at the MCG on Sunday afternoon.