Luke Hodge highlights where the Hawks are excelling the most

Hawthorn is the talk of the town after a thumping 74-point win over Carlton on the weekend.

Sam Mitchell’s Hawks have now entered the top eight and are one of the absolute form teams of the AFL just a few weeks out from finals.

Since Round 11 the Hawks hold a 9-2 record which includes six victories of 40 points or more.

Premiership captain Luke Hodge has been quite taken with what the Hawks have been able to achieve, especially after losing their first five and holding a 3-7 record at Round 10.

“They’re playing football that people have touted, up there with the Western Bulldogs until the weekend, as the best in the AFL,” Hodge said on SEN’s Sportsday.

“Since Round 11 they’re second in points for, they are first for (least) points against.

“So we’re talking about the flair, the run, the creativity, but they’re the best in defence since Round 11. It’s not all one way for them, it’s not just all (forward) running, you’ve got to run just as hard back.

“It’s funny that ‘Mitch’ is coaching that because he hated doing that as a player,” Hodge laughed.

Club great Hodge highlighted the four key scoring areas in the game and what the Hawks have done in those categories since their form turned in Round 11.

He praised Mitchell’s side for their ability to average 98 points per game while conceding just 67 points across their last 11 matches.

“What people do notice with Hawthorn is the way they play with their aggressive nature with the ball,” he added.

“There’s four ways that you can score: There’s scoring from turnover - they’re second in that since Round 11. There’s scoring from clearance - they’re first in that since Round 11. There’s scoring from centre bounces - they’re second in that. There’s scoring from kick-ins - they’re first.

“If you’re looking at the four ways you can score in a game of football, they’re first or second in all of those categories. Top that off with the fact that they’re the hardest team to score against since Round 11.

“So you sit back and go the reasons why they’ve built to what they have been is because they’ve got a great mix of offence and defence.

“When they’re second in points for it means they’re kicking goals and bringing energy, so if someone does take a mistake they don’t care about it because that is Sam’s mindset.”

The Hawks find themselves sitting eighth on 48 points behind the seventh-placed Western Bulldogs on percentage, but less than one per cent clear of ninth-placed Carlton.

They will be confident of notching their 13th win of the season when they face a struggling Richmond side at the MCG on Sunday afternoon.

Their Round 24 fixture is against North Melbourne, so based on those two games, they really should play finals given the current form they are in.