Hawthorn captain Ben McEvoy concedes there was a “messy” look to the club last year.
The Hawks battled on the field, winning seven games and finishing 14th, before the club moved on four-time premiership coach Alastair Clarkson to get Sam Mitchell into the hot seat.
In addition, the state of the Hawks’ list has been questioned, labelled a “mess” by Kane Cornes who has concerns for the club in 2022.
On SEN Breakfast, Cornes asked McEvoy about the current situation at Hawthorn ahead of the new season under Mitchell.
“Tell me why you’re not a mess. Give us a positive picture of what you see day to day and where you’re at,” he said.
McEvoy replied: “I don’t think it’s unfair to say how we looked last year was messy, I thought that myself.
“I don’t shy away from that, that it looked messy from the outside. What I’m really confident of now is that we’ve got to the right spot.
“Once the board made their decision that Clarko’s time was going to come to an end, it took us a little while to work through that. You’ve got a lot of different people in a footy club all trying to do the right thing, it doesn’t necessarily mean you agree.”
Despite that, McEvoy is confident that things have since settled down and a new, exciting era with Mitchell has dawned.
“What I think we’ve got now is the best possible point that we could in that Sam’s at the helm and we’re looking forward,” he added.
“It’s just been unbelievably positive in terms of doing things differently and us older guys being challenged. That’s really exciting and that gets you out of bed in the morning.
“The young group that we’ve got coming through, there’s just a really good feel. We’re trying something new and exciting and it’s really fun to come to work every day.”
The ‘next version’ of the Hawks will have a slightly different look to what we saw under Clarkson.
McEvoy says there will be a continued focus on defence, while highlighting the need to become more efficient in attack having struggled in that area in recent years.
“Some of the style of play will be different, for sure,” McEvoy said.
“We’re working on all aspects of the game, we’ve spent a lot of time on our defence in the last couple of weeks.
“It goes without saying that we need to improve the attacking side of the game with ball in hand. We need to score a bit more. We need to get better at that side of it.
“Having a clean slate with a new coach, it feels like everything’s open. As far as selection, everyone is on the table. It just has that feel that there’s a really even spread and there’s so many guys in the middle of our list where it’s, ‘Who will play and who won’t’.
“It will be really exciting to see over the next month who can step up and put their hand up.”
The Hawks, who will be led by McEvoy for a second season, take on Richmond in the AAMI Community Series on March 5.
Their Round 1 fixture takes place at the MCG against North Melbourne on March 20.