AFL 2019 – Hawthorn
Stopping the Slide even beyond Maestro Clarkson
AFL tips and betting at iTipsports features all 18 teams in our FREE AFL Season Bonus Preview that will outline their fortunes for 2019 from our expert AFL tips analysis and introduces our method of AFL betting analysis the HBM Human Behaviour Model.
Our seventh team we analyse for the AFL tips and betting in the AFL 2019 season is Hawthorn.
The Hawks, well what a side they have been and what an organisation they are but this time we are sure the run must come to an end.
It was no surprise to see the Hawks slide to 12th in 2017 on the back of moving on star premiership players to rebuild for the future. Little did we know what the future would be in 2018 with an amazing performance on the back of their Brownlow Medallist Tom Mitchell and their stars Jack Gunston and Luke Breust up forward (50 goals each) and this saw them charge back up the ladder into the top 4 and despite a meek finals series they genuinely looked to be back.
Brownlow Medallist out for season
When you add to this that the Hawks were able to “get it done” again in the off season attracting Chad Wingard and Tom Scully to the club all things were looking rosy. Then the Brownlow medallist Mitchell breaks his leg in an injury that will see him take pretty much no part in season 2019 and this is a huge hole to fill for the Hawks.
Hawthorn has the second oldest list in the AFL and we believe they are really vulnerable at a slide down the ladder. There looks more downside than upside in the improvement of the group with the age profile and despite getting Wingard to the club Ryan Burton may be more of a loss than many realise as defense is where the Hawks look most vulnerable.
Leadership the Key to Hawks
If there is one upside with this group its leadership and this is right from the top with President Jeff Kennett to Coach Alistair Clarkson and recently stepped down captain Jarryd Roughhead. This leadership and experience is so crucial to player development and club stability, however on this occasion we have queries whether this will be enough to overcome the invariable on field slide that is destined to hit the Hawks at some point.
The draw was one of the bonuses of sliding in 2017 in that they were presented with an easier draw playing a lot of the lower level teams, however in 2019 the Hawks have the second hardest fixture according to Champion Data with the inequities in the AFL system the draw can be a real leveller and we see this being a major continuing slide for the Hawks.
Whilst Tom Scully will bring some much needed speed through the Hawks midfield if he is fully fit you probably have to question the ability of Gunston and Breust to put together back to back 50 plus goal years.
We may have egg on our face at the end of the year as Clarko can tend to do that to you but we are tipping a slide back to the 2017 realm for the Hawks in 2019
AFL SEASON PREDICTION 12th with 9-12 wins
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