Demons great Garry Lyon has questioned Hawthorn’s mental approach following their third straight loss, suggesting the team became “unnecessarily wound up” ahead of last week’s 51-point defeat to Collingwood.
The Hawks, now 3-5 after a 4-0 start, were outclassed in every department, including a staggering -44 tackle count - and Lyon believes the build-up to the game revealed a side cracking under scrutiny, not rising to it.
“They got punched in the nose”
“They spent a summer getting praise, then won their first four games. I‘ve got no doubt their mindset was, ‘here we go (happier tone)’, as opposed to, ‘here we go, let’s get to work’,” Lyon said on Fox Footy’s AFL 360.
“When the pressure came, I thought the club seemed edgy unnecessarily… to me, that was the mindset going in, and they got punched in the nose.
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“They’re going to get more heat, and they’ll probably get crankier, but that’s not going to do you any good. I did get a mindset they felt like they were under siege. They weren’t under siege, it was just good old-fashioned critique.”
Lyon also pointed to a concerning lack of intensity: “You know what they’re not prepared to do… get their hands dirty, put their head in the hole and go and tackle someone. That’s a pretty clear message. Sam has already said it once, and the response was negligible.”
With the Hawks facing the Western Bulldogs on Thursday night and Adelaide looming before their bye, the pressure is mounting on Sam Mitchell’s side to adapt fast.