Regardless of how revolutionary the game becomes, an old adage remains true: 'Bad kicking is bad football' and this can be the difference between success and frustrating failure. Hawthorn's misses on goal yesterday, particularly in the third quarter (when we held ascendancy but failed to put this on the scoreboard by kicking 5.6) was the difference between a win and a frustrating draw and extinguished our faint hopes of a late charge at playing finals. In truth, thoughts of finals have been a tad delusional with the Hawks' main focus for the remainder of this season being on the teams' evolution in transition and its next generation of players. It is interesting to look at the changes in personnel when comparing the current list to the team that played in Round 1: Round 1 B: Taylor Duryea, James Frawley, Ben StrattonHB: Grant Birchall, Josh Gibson, Shaun Burgoyne C: Isaac Smith, Tom Mitchell, Ricky Henderson HF: Luke Breust, Ryan Schoenmakers, Jack Gunston F: Tyrone Vickery, Jarryd Roughead, Paul PuopoloR: Ben McEvoy, Jaeger O’Meara, Cyril RioliINT: James Sicily, Liam Shiels, Will Langford, Billy Hartung EMER: Kade Stewart, Ryan Burton, Teia Miles Round 16 B: Blake Hardwick, Kaiden Brand, Taylor Duryea HB: Ryan Burton, James Sicily, Luke HodgeC: Isaac Smith, Tom Mitchell, Billy Hartung HF: Luke Breust, Jack Gunston, Liam Shiels F: Tim O’Brien, Jarryd Roughead, Will Langford Foll: Ben McEvoy, Shaun Burgoyne, Daniel HoweInt: Ricky Henderson, Ryan Schoenmakers, Kurt Heatherley, Kade StewartEmer: Harry Morrison, Tyrone Vickery, Brendan Whitecross Injuries to key men with 8 changes have affected the teams prospects but also allowed a glimpse of the promise of youngsters Standing out as the major difference is that none of the names in defence are the same, keeping in mind that Taylor Duryea has been outstanding in the last two weeks playing as a small defensive forward. Its evolution has been startling and even if legends Josh Gibson and Luke Hodge retire at season's end, when you consider the superb recent performances of the youth and that defensive pillars Grant Birchall, James Frawley and Ben Stratton are still to return, the future looks bright. Ryan Burton has been superb all season as a cultured key back and James Sicily has added so much to the team in the zone off role with his intercept marking, daring rebound and scything long kicking. Blake Hardwick’s presence as a rebounder out of defence cannot be underestimated and the long accurate kicking skills of the trio have compensated for the lack of penetration kicking by our midfielders. Old style defenders Kaiden Brand and Kurt Heatherley have also been very good. Heatherley is of particular interest, strong overhead and in the contest with real pace pointing to his ability not just as a key back but also as a rebounding flanker, or even big wingman. Away from the defence, the midfield was much better. Our improvement in contested ball, a statistic we have been routinely smashed in, was dramatic with us holding a 152/126 ascendency against an elite midfield. The addition of both Daniel Howe and Shaun Burgoyne in the guts has had a profound effect, with Howe representing a big hulking contested wrecking ball and Burgoyne a silken sledgehammer. Changes to the forward line have also paid dividends with the aforementioned Duryea being stellar along with Will Langford in a similar defensive forward role. Ryan Schoenmakers was also very good as a high half forward operating as a linkman into attack where his high grade foot skills were telling. If not for some bad misses on goal, the Hawks faithful would be frothing at the mouth in anticipation of Hodge’s 300th game against hated rivals Geelong at a packed MCG next week to continue with our late charge towards the finals.