3 minute read

Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett has declared the Hawks will awake from their post-golden era slumber in 2023 when they re-emerge as an AFL force.

Hawthorn plan to aggressively target the AFL draft for the next two years before being back in premiership contention by 2023, according to club president Jeff Kennett.

After winning four premiership during a golden era between 2008 and 2015, the Hawks are entrenched as one of the AFL's strugglers this season.

They are 17th with just two wins from eight games in 2021.

Kennett has echoed the sentiments of the chief executive Justin Reeves in that Hawks fans need to prepare for a bumpy road ahead.

"We will be back in the draft this year and the same will apply next year," Kennett told SEN.

"We've said to our members, we're not in the race for silverware this year.

"Unlikely next, but from '23 on, if we've got this right, we're in for another decade of very good competitive football.

"The most important thing is to build a football unit that will be competitive for a decade - it takes two years to do that."

Kennett was confident on the two-year timeline, going back to the club playing finals in Alastair Clarkson's third season as coach in 2007.

Hawthorn finished 15th in 2004 and were able to secure future premiership stars Lance Franklin, Jarryd Roughead and Jordan Lewis in that year's draft.

"We know how to do it well. We know we're recruiting well," Kennett said.

"We know we've got a lot of players who (are injured).

"Among our group we have some very, very exciting players.

"We're not promising the world this year, we're saying we're going to be practical... and we believe within two years we will be back on the park in a competitive way."

Clarkson is contracted until the end of the 2022 season but Kennett says the Hawks are no in rush to make a call on the coach's future.

"We wait until the end of the year, and then we'll sit down and see what Clarko wants and what the club wants," Kennett said.

"There is no discussion taking place on coaching... we are all as one."