Frontline midfielders Jaeger O’Meara and Tom Mitchell,the latter the reigning best and fairest winner and a former Brownlow medallist,small forward Chad Wingard,and three-time premiership star Jack Gunston are available to rival clubs in exchange for high draft selections. But,regardless of what happens before this year’s exchange period closes on Wednesday,Pelchen said Mitchell and his recruiting team needed to get their strategy right now,and then withstand the pressure that would come when his honeymoon period ends.
“They are starting on that strategy now,but what is important is not just the decisions they make in ’21 and ’22,it’s the decisions they make in ’24,‘25 and ’26,that’s when the pressure will really build,” Pelchen said.
“There inevitably will come some expectation. People will allow Sam two or three years. After that,the expectation comes,and we have seen it with Carlton over the past decade,where you have had three coaches go through the system in this so-called build … but with each coach,they feel they need to take a slightly different tack.”
While president Jeff Kennett has said he feels the Hawks can return to premiership contention in two or three years,Pelchen said he believed the rebuild could take seven or eight.
“I think,unfortunately,Hawthorn should have taken this path three or four years ago and it wouldn’t have to be quite so drastic,but I think because it was delayed,and somewhat overdue,it will now be more aggressive than otherwise than it probably would have to be,” he said.
“Because of that,they are going to make list changes with players that otherwise would have been in their best 22 … they are going to have to move on some of those players just out of a need to get back into the draft because there is a dearth of young talent at Hawthorn.”