Predicting the Hawthorn Hawks BEST 22 in AFL 2027

good day guys welcome back to the true foooty YouTube channel as we continue our offseason series of projecting 3 years into the future and trying to have a stab at what each individual team in the afl's best 22 is likely to look like 3 years from now so the idea is to remove players who are likely to be retired and try and project the development of players that are currently on the list obviously the the limitation of this analysis is that uh we don't know what trades are going to happen and what draft picks are going to likely be uh entering various clubs however the point it is more so to project how mature a list might be in 3 years how vulnerable it will be to retirements Etc and uh what their strengths and weaknesses are I guess from a positional point of view So today we're doing the Hawthorne football club I've worked through all all the teams in Reverse alphabetical order once again from the Western Bulldogs to now Hawthorne and uh I also did a similar V video series looking at their best 22s for 2024 which you can also find as a different playlist on this channel so before I crack into the hawthone football club if you do me a favor and consider subscribing to the channel we do lots of AFL content almost all of it is AFL content and we dabble a little bit with Cricket in the offseason as well but if you can consider subscribing it would really help me out so today like I said we're going to be doing the Hawthorne football club and this one will be an interesting one in the sense that they've got a very young list and so projecting their best 22 or 24 it might not actually be that different however there are still going to be some retirements to consider and uh maybe some positional changes as well so usually how I start these videos is I got through the players that I think will definitely not be on the list in 3 years time specifically round one of 2027 is kind of the ballpark of what we're aiming for uh in terms of age and stuff like that so uh with Hawthorne you know there's been some clubs where I've had like 8 to 10 potential retirements over three years we've probably got four for Hawthorne here specifically Luke brw who will be 36 Jack Jack Gunston who will be 35 Chad Wingard will be 33 and Sam frost at 33 I also H got rid of however will name the players that are over 30 that I'm keeping in the squad one of them is James Sicily he will be 32 by round one and uh my logic here is I just feel like James sisily could play a little bit longer than some of those other players again I'm speculating this whole video is speculation but I think James siis is likely still be around KL Amon at 31 same thing with jam and imp they'll both be 31 I think they'll be around same Mar or chol who will be 30 that year as will Blake Hardwick so those are the retained veterans and again not too many veterans on the list even 3 years from now so with that all in mind let's have a stab at their best 22 or 24 so I'll get it up on the screen now and uh you can see that there's a fair bit going on if you haven't watched the other videos in this series I will explain what you're looking at here obviously it's the best 22/24 the colors simply indicate my confidence to which they are likely to still be in the best 22 in 3 years time now it is a little bit arbitrary I wouldn't get too CAU up in it and there's probably been some double standards where I've um been inconsistent through videos of what's green and what's yellow uh but my idea is that I'm pretty confident about the green ones still being uh a around and B in the best 22 and if they're yellow I'm a little bit less sure that they're not going to be overtaken um but there's a lot of factors to consider with that sort of thing like positional depth and Etc so that's what the colors mean the numbers uh the first number is their age by round one of the 2027 season and the second number the slash is uh how many games I roughly estimate they will have played by then and uh as a general rule if they best 20 two player over 3 years I estimate 20 games a season that equals 60 that allows for injury and suspension if they're a project player I probably just scale down the number a little bit or if they're just currently on The Fringe or even a developing young player uh they probably would have played less so I've just had a rough estimate and the idea is to get a feel for how mature this list is um and before we can really forecast how good this team will be in 3 years so let's start with the backline as we always do and I've got four players I'm pretty damn confident we still be there Blake Hardwick James silly Jack scrimshaw quite confident and Josh wed now Josh wed the only question mark there is I believe there's a bit of talk he might transition into a Midfield role uh I'm not too sure about that but the very worst he could probably play like a third tall defense uh defensive role maybe not third tall he's about 190 um but we'll see what happens but yeah nonetheless a pretty good prospect that I'm confident will be in the Team One Way or Another GF I've currently gotten yellow there um that's you know upon reflection I might change that to Green by the time I actually put this graphic up uh because you know he comparing him and scrimshaw they're probably both likely to be best 22 and three years so I will change that blank is an interesting one as well uh just because he's not you know guaranteed to be in the best 22 by then but probably right now the next best key position Defender if I was Hawks I'd probably be looking to adding at least another mature one in this case Frost is not available and will mccab is probably still a little bit Young At 21 but he could be in there or they could trade someone in so that was my rough attempt to their backline it's not too different from how I expect them to line up in 2024 let's talk about the Midfield again not too much movement here uh Josh water and KL Amon on the wings I'm confident about Ward being there Amon again it's just a case of whether he gets pushed out rather than anything else at 31 is he still going to be the same player maybe maybe will Day by that point will be in the peak of his career at 25 so we can see that he and Nukem again 25 and roughly 100 games of experience will probably be really uh consistent AFL midfielders that's what I expect anyway I've just got cam McKenzie slightly outing James warle I think McKenzie is pretty highend talent I really like the look of him and I think in three years time he might have just sidelined James War a little bit who I still have on the bench so it's a pretty damn good Midfield and we're not seeing too much movement in and out of that Midfield Ford line again we've talked about the Ford line being a potential real strength not only in 3 years but like as soon as next year uh but we will see you know more mature Nick Watson at 22 for instance Dylan Moore still in his prime Mitch Lewis at 28 has the potential to be a real uh real gun forward of the competition I think and this will be in his prime so uh that bodess well Mario Cho again I'm not too sure if he's going to be there um you know he might get beaten by somebody else they might trade in you know Jamar ugle Haagen or something like that who really knows again I think ch's pretty handy and should be best 22 but I'm not 100% sure uh ginan again I'm a little bit less confident on ginan U maybe that's just down to personal opinion I don't really see you know real star potential although he has flirted with best form um in his two years of Callingwood I think it was his first season was better than his second he could still be there but again I wouldn't be completely shocked if Hawthorne do find a better alternative whereas by comparison Conor McDonald I'm very confident will be there I think he's I think he's a better player to be honest uh Ned Reeves is the rock I see no obvious contenders for that maybe Lloyd mink but and Reeves is especially at 29 CM when he fills out and is like well not necessarily fill out but when he matures his body at 28 I think he's still going to be the man so then we just got a bunch of bench options um and it's a little bit hard to split some of these as well I've got imp still on that team I just sidelined him um just because of his age a little bit but he'll still probably be around the mix Sheamus Mitchell at 24 will be around the Mark I talked about warle already Finn mcginness could be in this team uh again I'm not too sure exactly what the evolution of Finn mcginness is as a footballer we know he's a good tagger at the moment he going to be a competitive and deep Midfield does he stay a tagger yeah probably I'm not too sure Hawks fans let me know in the comments Conor Nash at 28 will be there as a mature big bodied experience but again you look at some of these midfielders and um considering the the fact that Kenzie and Ward are already kind of probably going to be in their best 22 or at least given games in 2024 they're going to accumulate some experience so um while it's a young Midfield even in three years it'll still have a fair bit of experience you'd think Sam Butler is probably the next forward off the rank as well he's played a little bit at AFL level I want to say about 17 games uh and probably just in the mix as a depth player so we'll talk about some of the players I left out and again it's a little bit tough because with the Hawks you have a lot of uh young prospects outside the 22 sort of competing for the same spots but bayy McDonald was one of them I just didn't quite have him making it same with masimo dambrosio if we're if we're talking about him competing for a half back spot I think the competition there is pretty Rife will mccab is only outside of this 22 because he's 21 and might not be as as ready made as a blank who's at 26 do they go with a three tall option legitimately is W all a midfielder they could they could FLIR with that mix a little bit Harry Morrison was another one as well as bod Ryan again I just not not too sure but they just didn't quite make the cut Cooper Stevens and Henry H probably the midfielders I just left out of this uh again I just don't think they have the same potential as the guys that are in this 24 um however particularly with the case of hus I see the potential naturally Denver Granger barass is a player I left out again I just don't know exactly how's he's going to evolve uh ideally as a key for but I didn't have more confidence in him making it as a key for than mby or cha so I've just left him out there's a few developing TOS as well like Max Ramen and Klay Tucker and Lloyd me so again it's a little bit hard to forecast CO shadir as well couple of small forwards as well Jacko Sullivan I think Josh Bennetts if I'm not mistaken is a small forward forgive me I don't know too much about him uh Hawks fans but naturally considering the strength of that forward line regardless uh I think is going to be very competitive for those kinds of types to break in and ala ginan or ala Nick Watson I just I wouldn't bet on it right now so that's my take on the haon football club in terms of projecting their best 22 how good could they be you know pretty damn good particularly that Midfield and forward line that's a real strength I probably look to reinforce the toall defensive options you know does blank become a become a gun he could by the time he's 26 um but naturally I still think getting one uh and maybe freeing up Sicily from a true key back position maybe make him a third tall I think they can experiment with that mix a little bit um but naturally they they're sort of in a position where they've got some really quality young mids and forwards who can like battle for those spots and the cream will rise to the top and I think they'll be a strong team within 3 years although still relatively inexperienced maybe not inexperienced but relatively young they're going to be experienced players for their age if that makes sense uh which bodess well for the hawthor footy Club so yeah I would expect Finals within three years for Hawthorne absolutely but let me know in the comments what you agree with or disagree with in this video Hawks fans uh as always I invite you to fill in a few blanks for me uh what are some young guns that you think will rise to the top and uh make this 24 but as always I appreciate you watching I appreciate you being subscribed to the channel if you are and I'll see you the next video guys cheers