The biggest flaws David King sees at Hawthorn

Hawthorn have suffered their first defeat in 2025, failing to jump out of the blocks in their 30-point mauling at the hands of Port Adelaide.

Managing just one goal and down 71 points at the 30-minute mark of the second term, Sam Mitchell’s men suffered their worst first half deficit since their 76-point loss to the Swans in Round 7 of 2024.

With the loss marking a rare off-day for Hawthorn, SEN’s David King is willing to give the Hawks a pass.

“Hold your horses on the Hawks,” King told SEN’s Fireball.

“Just hold your horses. The coach has been telling us for weeks, and the numbers reflect the same.

“They are winning, but they are not near the finished product. It’s a marathon, so there is plenty of time to work on it.”

With that being said, King believes that while Hawthorn’s mosquito fleet forward line has proved lively and effective, deploying Mabior Chol as the sole key target may not be the answer going forward.

“You’ve got to assess Mabior Chol and the role that he plays on this team,” King continued.

“While you’re down on talls, you need a warrior at centre half forward. You need a competitor that’s going to bring the ball to ground, he doesn’t do that,

“They look much better team when (James) Sicily is forward, and he gives too much space down back, he just zones off at the wrong times.

“He allowed Sam Powell-Pepper to just stroll into the pocket and have an easy snap at goal that he converted and then it was on again.

“I just think Sicily, whilst he is an All-Australian and a high calibre defender, he probably serves them best up forward, and I don’t know if they are too tall down back, they got hammered at ground level in their backline.

“There is massaging to be done to the lineup, but there is certainly a change required.”

SEN's Kane Cornes was in agreement with King, remaining critical of the Hawks however passing off their loss as a rare off-night.

“When you have a performance that show those flaws, everyone else sits back and watches," Cornes said.

"They are going to be prime time, the amount of prime-time action that they are getting, teams are going to come hard and scout them.

“They have been up for a long period of time, and I think you're allowed to have the odd down week. But in a game like that that meant a fair bit, when you’ve puffed your chest out at the end of last year and you’ve been quite vocal... and you produce donuts..."

Despite the performance, both King and Cornes are willing to let the Hawks off with a mulligan.

King:: “Do we just give the Hawks a little mulligan and move on?"

Cornes:: “I do, yeah. I’m prepared to."

King: “I think they need change.

“I think Sicily has to play forward for this team.

“Next Monday against Geelong, Sicily has to start forward.”

A tough contest awaits as the Hawks take on old rivals Geelong at the MCG on Easter Monday.