Sam Mitchell's Hawthorn rebuild risks becoming a demolition site without some reward for effort.
Amid the focus on Mitchell coaching against Alastair Clarkson for the first time, and Clarkson making his own travel arrangements for the flight back to Melbourne, Saturday's AFL clash against North Melbourne in Launceston is an early-season test for the Hawks.
The Kangaroos are coming off two upset wins over St Kilda and Fremantle, while Hawthorn are struggling after big losses to Essendon and Sydney.
This season was always going to be a challenging one for Mitchell and his young team. It risks being a long, barren winter unless Hawthorn can perform against fellow developing sides such as North.
"Spirit and energy - it's much easier to run on top of the ground and feel good when you're getting reward for effort," Mitchell said.
"But when we're throwing a lot of the effort down the drain by shooting ourselves in the foot with ball use and shots on goal, etc, you don't get the reward for effort.
"It's not an excuse - we absolutely should play the same way, the same spirit, regardless of the scoreboard.
"But we're not capable of that right now and we're going to need to play with spirit all the time. We haven't been able to do it in the first two games."
By contrast, Clarkson is trying to strike a balance between focusing on the Hawks and celebrating the spirit the Kangaroos showed in their one-point win over Fremantle.
"We don't want to put a harness on that type of emotion - those types of wins on the road can really galvanise a club," he said.
"Our club hasn't had too many of those types of victories, or really, really stirring victories on the road, against the odds.
"We need to celebrate it for as long as we possibly can without letting it impact ... it's a fine balance there.
"If they do that on a consistent basis, they're going to be in games of footy."
But the buildup to Saturday has been all about Clarkson v Mitchell.
Clarkson coached the Hawks to four premierships and he had a testy relationship at times with Mitchell, one of his star players.
Mitchell was supposed to take over from him in a coaching succession plan, but it fell apart and Clarkson left the Hawks a year early at the end of 2021.
Clarkson has also revealed he will make his own travel plans back to Melbourne, rather than take the charter flight carrying the two teams, because of the ongoing inquiry into racism claims at Hawthorn during his coaching tenure.
North's travel to Launceston on Friday meant they missed the funeral of club stalwart Ron Joseph, who died earlier this month.
"We would have loved to have done a guard of honour for Ron, given his contribution to the club, but obviously we have a game of footy," Clarkson said.
