YOU DON'T need a calculator to know the age demographic has dramatically changed out at Waverley Park. Luke Breust is now the only premiership player left at Hawthorn, and the only player on the list above the age of 30.
If you do the maths, you will discover the average age of Sam Mitchell's list is currently just 22.1 years, dropping below Adelaide as the youngest team heading into 2023. That's what happens when you lose so much experience at once.
Premiership veterans Ben McEvoy and Liam Shiels both retired – although Shiels is about to return to an AFL list at North Melbourne, via the pre-season supplemental selection period – before seasoned stars Jack Gunston, Tom Mitchell and Jaeger O’Meara moved to new homes by the end of the trade deadline.
If you still have your calculator out, that's 1046 games of experience between those five players. When you include Kyle Hartigan (135 games), Tom Phillips (115) and Daniel Howe (96) – who all weren't offered another contract – even more experience can be added to the bottom line.
Now Breust is the last man standing.
The 32-year-old signed a one-year extension in September after kicking 40 goals in 2022, locking him in brown and gold until the end of 2024, which should see him experience the move from Hawthorn’s Mulgrave base to the Kennedy Community Centre in Dingley.
Breust has lost close friends to other clubs amid so much change all at once, but the triple premiership forward remains committed to finishing his decorated career as a one-club player.
"I've been committed to this footy club for a long period of time. Being a one-club player was really high on my list. To be able to do that and remain a one-club player and hopefully finish my career here was my goal,” Breust told AFL.com.au this week.
"It is disappointing and it's going to be a different place around here for the next few months, but that's football and that's how brutal it can be.
"'Mitch' (Mitchell) was on the phone pretty quickly just to get my feelings and thoughts and see where everything was at. That was good post that trade period.
"Looking around the locker room for a familiar face and they are not there anymore but I'm sure I'll build relationships and get around teammates that I have already built significant relationships with. We'll move forward, the journey continues."
This time last year, Breust had just returned for pre-season after almost moving to Greater Western Sydney before turning his back on a more lucrative offer to remain in brown and gold.
With 260 games on the board and the prospect of becoming just the ninth player in Hawthorn history to play 300 games for the club, Breust doesn't regret the decision to remain when recent history has seen so many others finish elsewhere.
"I've had multiple chances throughout my career to move, going way back to 2015 or 2016 my name was starting to get bandied around during trade period, it was almost a running gag in my family that my name would pop up at some stage during the trade period over the last six or seven years," he said.
"It would have had to be a significant deal to drag me from this place; I love this footy club and will continue to put in the work to take this group where it needs to go."
Breust is now one of only three Hawks to have played with the man now coaching the club – Sicily and Hardwick also played with Mitchell – underlining the magnitude of change since Alastair Clarkson departed just over 12 months ago.
The two-time All-Australian, who was originally selected from Temora with pick No.47 in the 2009 Rookie Draft, has noticed a significant difference in Mitchell the coach from the uncompromising player who won four premierships, five Peter Crimmins Medals and a Brownlow Medal.
"I've been really impressed by Mitch. Obviously as a former teammate, and then as an assistant and now as a senior coach, the biggest thing I've been impressed with is his ability to adapt and change and grow. As a player he was pretty brutal and very honest, he knew how to get the best out of his players. That's changed," he said.
"The way you need to wrap your arms around younger guys and guide them in the right direction, he's been able to change the way he's coached. He obviously knows the game so well, but he would have learned a lot in his first year. I'm looking forward to him driving the standards and taking this footy club back to where he wants us to go."
The age of the list is not the only shift between the 2022 and 2023 seasons. Hawthorn will need to appoint a new captain following the retirement of McEvoy.
Star defender James Sicily is the early favourite to become the 38th captain of the Hawthorn Football Club, but the 2022 best and fairest winner is not the only option Breust expects to be considered for the coveted role.
"I think there are a number of candidates. One of Mitch's strengths last year was to open that leadership floor up and give guys an opportunity to broaden our leadership base," he said.
"I think we’ve got five, six, seven guys who will be around if there is a leadership group who will certainly be putting their hands up. The names that spring to mind are Mitchell Lewis, James Sicily, Dylan Moore; these sort of guys who within the four walls of the footy club have a huge influence."
The winds of change have swept through Waverley Park, but Breust is still standing.
