Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett believes his club will lose between $500,000 to $1 million in potential match day revenues due to the AFL's poor fixturing of the Victorian giants.
The Hawks could drop below 30,000 average attendees for their matches this season, which would be their lowest number since 2006, and since their run of four premierships in eight years.
Kennett took a swipe at the AFL on Twitter on Friday night, saying the club are just accepting the "deliberate" scheduling, and are sitting in silence.
Sadly the AFL decide where games ate played not the Clubs. Let alone the days and times we play. The AFL's schedule, deliberate, has cost Hawthorn between $500 000 and $1m this year. We do not complain! Just suffer in silence! And financially.
— Jeff Kennett (@jeff_kennett) June 28, 2019
Hawthorn has only been drawn one Friday night match in 2019, as well as a number of low-drawing Sunday afternoon matches, including a home clash against GWS and an away game against Gold Coast.
Despite this, former Port Adelaide midfielder Kane Cornes had a go at Hawthorn fans on SEN, telling them to "hang their heads in shame" for their consistently bad turn-outs.
“This is the Hawthorn team who claims to have 80,000 members, who has played in 10 out of the last 12 finals fixtures and has won four flags since 2008,” Cornes said on SEN on Friday.
“Hawthorn fans, where are you? Do you only come out when you win?
“The team can do no more. You have the best coach in the competition, you’ve played in 10 out of the last 12 finals series and you are blaming a bad draw on a lack of crowd?
“You mob, in the win against the Giants, had 14,000 people at the MCG on a fine day and you claim to have 80,000 members.
“Hawthorn fans, you should hang your heads in shame.”
The Hawks will host West Coast at the MCG on Saturday, with their past two home crowds against West Coast 28,077 (round 10, 2018) and 28,997 (round five, 2017).