Probably the hardest job in footy is picking the best 10 Hawthorn players from the past decade. Well, I gave it a crack!
Hawthorn played in four grand finals from 2012-2015, winning three of them, and made finals in every year apart from 2017 and 2019.
The Hawks have had many ups over the past 10 years and these 10 men have stood out from the rest.
Sam Mitchell
You could pencil Mitchell in for 25+ disposals every game during his illustrious career at the Hawks.
He was a ball magnet and loved the rough stuff in the midfield and even down at half-back where he played the majority of game time during the latter years at the club.
He relinquished the captaincy at the end of the 2010 season to Luke Hodge, which helped his football as he went onto win four flags, the 2012 Brownlow Medal and won five Peter Crimmins Medals with the last three coming in 2011, 2012 and 2016.
Mitchell never averaged below 27 disposals during his last seven years playing for the Hawks, a stat, which typifies his uncanny ability to win the hard ball and bang it inside forward 50.
Mitchell will go down as one of the most ambidextrous players in AFL history as he didn’t have a preferred foot. His handballing was the same - elite.
Franklin was there from 2004, debut in 2005, your article is wrong.
He’s referring to the years he played in this decade.
Title of the article is Top 10 of players of last decade, not from when they started. Maybe read before commenting.