Why both Champion Data and Jack Riewoldt see similarities between 2024 Hawks and 2017 Tigers

Richmond great Jack Riewoldt admitted that he can see similarities between the 2024 Hawthorn side and the 2017 Tigers side which he won the first of his three premierships with.

Riewoldt made the comments during Hawthorn’s 38-112 win over Carlton at the MCG on Sunday while calling the game with Fox Footy, and that admission caught the ear of Champion Data’s Daniel Hoyne.

Hoyne pondered whether those similarities were surface level or ingrained deeper in the games of both sides and he can certainly see where Riewoldt was coming from.

“I was really interested in what Jack Riewoldt said at half-time of the coverage on Sunday where he said that this was, ‘Reminding him so much of Richmond 2017’,” Hoyne told SEN Sportsday.

“I thought that I thought that was a really good take. So, let's go away and have a bit of a deeper dive into what Hawthorn is doing at the moment over their last six weeks and what Richmond did in their last six-seven weeks heading into their 2017 finals campaign.

“It is so similar in terms of what's actually happening at the moment.”

Hoyne revealed 11 key areas where the current Hawks are similar to the famous 2017 Tigers, and it doesn’t just stop with the way that they want to play their footy.

“Both were number two in the turnover game. Both forward fifties were functioning in the top four of the competition. Both were getting territory at a top-six rate in the competition,” Hoyne said.

“Both were marking the footy around about 85 to 90 times a game. Both were happy to flick the footy around by hand. Both were actually not really getting any scoreboard return from their centre bounce work - it was more what they were doing from a system perspective.

“Both lost to Geelong down in Geelong in their last six-seven games of the season. Both played the MCG as well as any other teams in the competition.

“Both prioritised post-clearance work over what was happening at the pre-clearance phase.

“Both actually had losses during their season. Think of the GWS and Port Adelaide losses for Hawthorn - Richmond had very similar losses during the year and learned from it.

“Both had a very similar age and games profile to what they've got at the moment.”

The main difference, unfortunately for Hawthorn fans, is that the Tigers finished third and won straight through to a home Preliminary Final en route to a premiership victory.

In 2024, the eighth-placed Hawks will have to make their finals run – if they qualify – from an Elimination Final in week one.  

All of the last seven premiers have come from inside the top four.

“The only difference between the two is that one of them is going to start from outside the top four, and the other started from inside the top four,” Hoyne said.

“We've seen this before, that it runs aground at some stage.

“That is the main difference and a significant difference clearly. But in terms of how they're both playing, I think what Jack said has some merit to it.

“What they can do from sixth, seventh or eighth, only time will tell. It’s going to be a big ask.”

The Hawks will hope to continue locking in their finals place when they play last-placed Richmond at the MCG on Sunday afternoon.