Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell is confident his team will start the season off more positively than they did in 2024, with the club's campaign getting underway on Friday with an Opening Round match against the Sydney Swans.
The Hawks started the 2023 season with a 0-5 start and were left chasing their tails, playing catch-up football throughout the back end of the season before securing a finals berth in the last round.
"When we work really hard, we improve, so we have evidence that we can improve and we know to beat the top sides, you know, regularly, when it matters," Mitchell said at Waverley on Wednesday.
"We had a little taste of finals footy. We want to try and get back to there and get more of that.
"Realistically, we weren't good enough last year. There were five teams in front of us, and the Swans were certainly one of those."
Mitchell spoke about the external expectations of the Hawks in 2025 and how the club is trying not to focus on that.
External expectations are high for the Hawks, after winning an elimination final against the Western Bulldogs before narrowly losing by a kick to Port Adelaide in the semi-final at Adelaide Oval.
"You listen to your internal expectations, your expectations of your coaches, your teammates, and you try to live up to that," the Hawks coach said.
"If you live up to that, the outside world will look after itself."
The Swans, who start their first season under new head coach Dean Cox are going to be an unknown proposition compared to last year.
"I think every year there's a bit of an unknown to start the season," Mitchell said of last year's minor premiers.
"Cox has been there a long time, I worked with Coxy for over a year in the west, and I know he is a really professional operator."
The Hawks are confident that the shorter pre-season won't hinder their fortunes this year, with Mitchell speaking highly of the program that head of high performance Peter Burge has implemented.
"I am really confident the players are in great physical shape and from the health of our list, we are in a really good spot," Mitchell added.
Mitchell confirmed that boom defensive recruits Josh Battle and Tom Barrass will make their debuts for Hawthorn after an excellent performance in their Community Series clash last Thursday.
"I think both of the new lads have fit in really well and I was pleased with how they performed last week," he said.
"I actually thought they performed a bit better than I thought they might.
"Both of them are going to make club debuts so that is exciting for our fans to see a couple of new defenders in the side".
Experienced rebounding defender Jarman Impey, who missed Hawthorn's final pre-season hitout against the Western Bulldogs last week in Tasmania, will be available to play this weekend in the season opener against a potent Swans forward line.
"Obviously Jars hasn't played for us this year. He was in the All Star's game and was a bit niggly last week. He'll come into the side and there will be a bit of a different mix behind the ball," Mitchell said.
Throughout Wednesday's short main training session, Hawthorn ran with a similar mix of defenders as seen in the practice matches, which will add to the intrigue around who plays on the dangerous Tom Papley, if he is passed clear to play from his fitness test.
Excitement machine Changkuoth Jiath won't feature for the Hawks this week after struggling with a nagging hip injury, despite training strongly throughout the season.
Jiath had had a positive pre-season before succumbing to the injury in the past fortnight, which will see him miss another outing.
"He's of the higher risk side. He could have probably played last week but we decided it wasn't worth the risk profile," Mitchell said the dashing defender.
"The health of our list is pretty good and we're going to need 'CJ' at some stage. He won't play this week but will be available pretty quickly."
The Hawks kickstart their 2025 AFL season at the SCG against last year's grand finalists the Swans in the opening game of the season on Friday evening.
