HAWTHORN coach Sam Mitchell believes his club's aggressive list rebuild has given it a "point of difference" to rivals as the Hawks hope to piece together the nucleus of their next successful era. 

The Hawks lost more than 1000 games of experience last off-season when they traded midfielders Tom Mitchell (to Collingwood) and Jaeger O'Meara (to Fremantle), saw forward Jack Gunston leave for Brisbane, Liam Shiels retire and then join North Melbourne and captain Ben McEvoy call an end to his career.

Mitchell and the Hawks have narrowed in on a strong draft-led build, using five top-30 picks over the past two seasons, including first-round pair Cam Mackenzie and Josh Weddle last year.

The second-year coach explained the exits of his senior players as being in line with the club's strategy of bringing through a young group together, as well as targeting emerging trade targets, such as Geelong midfielder Cooper Stephens and Fremantle ruckman Lloyd Meek. 

"We had a really clear list management strategy, we knew what we were trying to achieve, we know what we believe success is going to require," Mitchell told AFL.com.au.

"While not everything went to plan, we would have loved to keep Jack Gunston for instance, but I think Tom Mitchell had already been speaking to Collingwood and Collingwood were hoping to get him so out of that deal we managed to bring in a 21-year-old inside midfielder who was an early pick a couple of years ago in Cooper Stephens. 

"We had our eyes on Lloyd Meek for a long time and he was a real priority to get to the club. We hit a bit of a roadblock, we couldn't get anywhere [in trade talks] so when the Jaeger thing came up late – it wasn't part of our planning to lose Jaeger – but to get Lloyd in and also get a little bit of extra draft capital which turned into Josh Weddle really. We think about it as bringing in another first-round draft pick and a really good ruckmen as well, so it kind of makes sense.  

"Did we go in with the plan of losing all those players? Not necessarily. But it's consistent with the strategy that we have and I'm really pleased with the group that we have got now and it really feels like this is the group that's going to go forward together."

The Hawks won eight games last year in Mitchell's first season as coach, with the likes of Josh Ward, Connor Macdonald and Sam Butler all blooded as first-year players. 

The undertaking of a longer, youth-driven rebuild shows the club's faith in Mitchell's direction and also comes in an era where many premiership-contending clubs, including Richmond and Geelong, are attempting to avoid bottoming out for long rebuild phases by regularly targeting experience.

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Mitchell said the strong list strategy at Hawthorn allowed the club to build at its pace and use different levers than other clubs to fast-track its rise. The Hawks are using their ample salary cap space to pay a sizeable chunk of O'Meara and Mitchell's contracts for this year despite them being moved, which made their trade deals more appealing for the Pies and Fremantle, while they will also be able to hit the free agency market again after attracting Karl Amon from Port Adelaide last season. 

"I think if there are a whole group of clubs doing the same thing, it's probably less likely to work. So if you think about the clubs that have rebuilt well, they were the only clubs doing it at the time," he said. 

"If you have the same strategy as every other club then you're fighting for the same free agents or the same draft capital or the same talent pool that you can bring. I think us being in a younger spot now, we're able to do some things with the salary cap or how contracts are set up and potentially look to free agency over the next couple of years that other clubs can't do because they haven't done it the way we have. 

"What that does is it gives us a point of difference and when you're building a list and building a strategy, if you're trying to do what everyone else is doing, the resources are finite so I'm really confident in the direction we're going. 

"The list management team have put together a good strategy and now we get to see if the playing group and coaching group can execute it."