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The Hawthorn footy club has been a storyteller's dream all year, in both the men's and women's competitions. The 'Hokball' phenomenon has seen excitable fans, creative goal celebrations, a lively social media presence and both sides through to a finals campaign. For the first time, after joining the league in 2022, the AFLW side finished in the top two on the ladder after just a single loss all season (to Adelaide).  But having only beaten two teams that finished in the top eight, Fremantle and Richmond -- thanks to a quirk in the AFLW fixture which means all teams do not play each other once -- many questioned whether they could really stack up against every side. Now, having lost to another top-four side, albeit in a fiery contest to reigning premiers Brisbane, by just six points, they now have to take the long road to the Grand Final. Lining up to face an in-form Port Adelaide who have won seven games in a row on Saturday will mean all eyes will be glued to the Hawks as the question remains, were they unlucky against Brisbane or will they be found out? The commentary around Hawthorn and their rise through the ranks this year has been tempered with conversations around the difficulty of their draw. Brisbane defeated Hawthorn 38-32 in the qualifying final with former Lions midfield coach Daniel Webster now at the helm of the Hawks, as well as former Lions stars Greta Bodey and Emily Bates also in the brown and gold. The Lions went in as lower ranked on the ladder but took out the win, seeing Webster field questions post-game around their "soft draw." "When I looked through the draw at the start of the year and I did my calculations I had us having the seventh-hardest draw in the comp," Webster said post-game. "Then just because you win games and other teams don't, all of a sudden it's easy, I mean no-one expected Melbourne and Geelong to be out of the eight and yet we're sitting there getting told we've had a soft draw. "That actually infuriates me a little bit and it's disrespectful to a lot of the teams that we've played, give me a spell." Interestingly, another expert in the field, Chyloe Kurdas, has done the numbers and found that the data backs this up. "Both Brisbane and Hawthorn played nine of the same teams and just two teams separate of that," Kurdas said on the ABC's W Show podcast. "The only teams that Hawthorn played that Brisbane didn't were Fremantle (5th on the ladder) and Richmond (7th) and Brisbane played Western Bulldogs (12th on the ladder) and Sydney (15th). "When I averaged the finishing ladder position for each of the teams they played, what's really fascinating is both Brisbane and Hawthorn ended up playing an opposition team that ended on average, 11.27th on the ladder. "So if you're going to criticise Hawthorn's draw coming into the finals, Brisbane has played exactly the same ladder position on average." Kate McCarthy of Channel 7's 'Talking W' said she was pleasantly surprised by the Hawks. "Obviously there's been a few comments about who they had to play during the season and whether they had to play opponents that were tough enough in ways, but I was super impressed by Hawthorn," she said. "Honestly, going into that game I thought Brisbane were going to be too tough, too strong, too experienced and I thought they'd overrun them. "They beat them but they definitely didn't overrun them, they stood up for themselves, they played a beautiful brand of football and I was super impressed by Hawthorn and what they were able to do against a quality opposition." Fate will cast its dye on Saturday at Ikon Park, but there is no doubt that Hawthorn will be going out there with a point to prove.
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