HAWTHORN has only just begun celebrating its Grand Final win over Fremantle, but skipper Luke Hodge is already predicting that the club can stay near the top for another decade.
Speaking at the Hawks' victory dinner, Hodge said: "Our Box Hill development group played the grand final and were unlucky to lose by one point.
"Our Box Hill seniors won the grand final and we won the grand final, so one good thing about this football club is we're going the right way.
"For the next five, 10 years we're going to be a very competitive bunch."
Alastair Clarkson has similar thoughts.
The two-time premiership coach, who in recent weeks was linked to the vacant position at West Coast, is confident that Hawthorn can continue its winning ways.
Clarkson believes the club's depth will give it the firepower to launch another raid on the flag next season.
"We've got Schoenmakers and Suckling, Whitecross and Woodward, who've all had ACL injuries this year, so we've had our fair share of adversity that we've had to cope with," he said after the 15-point win over the Dockers on Saturday.
"For us to go through those individual pieces of trauma and get ourselves to a Grand Final victory says a lot about our footy club and how we can go to extra lengths to get the job done."
Analysing the win over Freo, Clarkson was full of praise for Sam Mitchell, despite the veteran midfielder collecting only 12 disposals.
Mitchell, who was coming off a match-winning 38-possession effort in the preliminary final win over Geelong, was well held by in-form tagger Ryan Crowley.
"Ryan does a great job and negates some pretty important players," Clarkson acknowledged.
"But despite Sam not having as prolific a day in terms of touches, the importance of him playing his role for our side today certainly isn't underestimated by our footy club.
"He had to sacrifice an enormous part of his game today, and I know it doesn't look good on the stats sheet, but we love the sacrifice he made for the footy club today.
"That's taught 'Mitch' to be more sacrificial in the way he plays games of footy.
"Ultimately, it's about team success. That's why he's a dual premiership player now."
Of the players who were able to make a more obvious impact on the outcome, Clarkson was delighted with the efforts of defender Brian Lake and forward Jack Gunston, who finished one-two in the Norm Smith Medal voting.
Lake had the better of Fremantle skipper Matthew Pavlich, while Gunston kicked four of Hawthorn's 11 goals.
"It was really hard to find standout players for both sides," Clarkson said. "It was a real grind, and that's the way Grand Finals are won sometimes.
"We had to do it the tough way, but I'm really pleased our guys dug in and won the game in the end."
The Hawks were 23 points up at half-time, but they found themselves in a spot of bother when Fremantle closed to within three points during the third quarter.
Clarkson was delighted that his men were then able to steady, lead by 10 points at the last change, and kick away early in the final term.
"I can't even remember what I said at three-quarter time, to be fair," he said. "But obviously it was just going to be a grind all the way through the game.
"I don't think any side got a real roll-on with the way the game was played. We defended really well and so did Fremantle."
