Hawks Roos

HAWTHORN chief executive Justin Reeves says his club makes no apologies for building for its next premiership success but says supporters will need to buckle up for that bumpy ride.

Reeves told News Corp on Monday the Hawks would not divert from a plan which will see them heavily invest in kids while attempting to support them with senior players.

Reeves said the club would almost certainly take its first pick, currently No.2, in the 2021 draft rather than trading it.

And he said after a dismal Mother’s Day crowd of 15,277, the Hawks would write to the AFL about dodging a “nightmare” timeslot next year.

The Hawks were poor in a 38-point defeat against West Coast and have won only four of their past 21 games dating back to Round 5 last year.

He said the Hawks had topped up after their premiership three-peat to “squeeze every drop out of the lemon” to win a fifth flag in the dynasty.

But the only way to rebound will be to absorb some pain and then continue to bring in more talent at year’s end.

“We were disappointed with the weekend, no doubt about that. But I think we are pretty open that was in the

vmiddle of a changing development period,” Reeves said.

“We are playing a lot of kids and it’s been a long time since we have done that.

“We expect some bumps along the way with so many kids but we are determined to stick to the plan.

“We know we will bring in more talent over the shortterm and we’re not in a position to see ourselves challenging for the flag.

“In saying that, our two first-round picks from the past two years are injured (in Will Day and Denver GraingerBarras) and we had James Sicily, Jaeger O’Meara and Jack Gunston out of the team. The weekend wasn’t where we see our team being and Clarko and the team will review it today and pull it apart.”

Alastair Clarkson.

Hawthorn invested early picks in the likes of O’Meara, Brownlow medallist Tom Mitchell and Chad Wingard as it sought to win one more flag.

On the club taking that early pick to the draft, Reeves said: “Oh yeah, I would imagine so. Can’t see it going any other way in all honesty”.

He said coach Alastair Clarkson was resolute in fulfilling that plan.

“Clarko has until the end of next year on his current contract. We need to stick to the plan and see it through and Clarko, like everyone else, is totally committed,” Reeves said.

The Hawks need more draft investment to surround kids including Day, Grainger-Barras,

Jacob Koschitzke, Connor Downie, Emerson Jeka, Finn Maguinness, Dylan Moore, Changkuouth Jiath, Mitch Lewis, Ned Reeves, Dylan Moore and Tyler Brockman.

“The message for our fans is we have had a great period of success and tried to squeeze every bit out of juice out of the lemon and tried to top up at the end of that period,” Reeves said.

“So at the moment we are in a different phase. We needed to start building for that next period of success. We won’t build to squeeze into the finals, we need to build for the next period of success. Some of those players played on the weekend, some of them didn’t. But we need to stick fat and stick to the plan.”

The Hawks would prefer to play on a Thursday night or in another timeslot than the early MCG clash on Mother’s Day after the terrible crowd.

“It’s an absolute disaster of a slot. I think we have been pretty clear on it. The last time we had crowds in 2019 we played GWS in that slot and had about the same amount (14,636).

“It’s a nightmare slot against an interstate team, at the MCG on Mother’s Day.”