Hawthorn midfielder Jai Newcombe insists his team’s “just win” mindset won’t change as the Hawks enter the final fortnight of the AFL home-and-away season in the unfamiliar role of being the hunted.
After starting the season 0-5, the Hawks have surged into the top eight and are hot favourites to take another step towards a finals berth when they take on last-placed Richmond at the MCG on Sunday.
A clash with second-from-bottom North Melbourne could then confirm Hawthorn’s first appearance in September since 2018.
But rivals are ready to pounce on an opportunity if the Hawks slip up.
“We’ve just got to keep winning – it’s as simple as that,” Newcombe told AAP.
“We’re in now and we’ve got to hold on.
“If we want to play in September then we’ve got to win the next two weeks, so the mindset won’t change.”
Hawthorn’s season looked just about over in April after they lost the opening five games of Sam Mitchell’s third year as coach.
A rapid and remarkable turnaround improved their ledger to 8-7, before a thumping from Geelong last month left the Hawks’ campaign at the crossroads.
Since then, they have thrived on finals-like pressure.
A narrow loss to GWS was a speed-bump, before the Hawks steamrolled injury-hit Carlton by 74 points last week to move into the top eight for the first time this year.
“It started in the Freo game (in round 19) where if we don’t win that then we’re probably not here now thinking that if we win we’re a chance,” Newcombe said.
“Our buy-in to the challenge over the last few weeks has been really good and we’ve had a few good results, which is nice.
“The confidence is really high at the moment.
“To perform like we did (against Carlton) and have good wins over Collingwood and interstate against Adelaide … those games were really important for us.
“Even against GWS we didn’t necessarily play our best footy but we still took confidence out of that, so there’s definitely plenty of confidence amongst all the boys.”
At one point the top eight wasn’t even on the Hawks’ radar, but now the finals carrot looms large – and even an unexpected premiership isn’t beyond the realms of possibility.
“It’s getting bigger as we go now that it’s becoming more realistic,” Newcombe said.
“It’s nice that it’s there for us.
“Once you’re in, anything can happen, so we’ll give ourselves the best chance to be there.”
Hawthorn have named an unchanged side to take on Richmond, who have picked midfielder Jack Ross to play his first game since round four.
Ross has overcome a foot injury and returns alongside Jacob Blight and Matt Coulthard, with Samson Ryan, Kaleb Smith and Thomson Dow dropped from the Tigers team that copped a 48-point hammering from St Kilda last week.
Richmond have won just two games all season and are aiming to snap an eight-match losing streak.
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