Hawthorn's James Worpel isn't concerned following his side's Round 1 loss to Essendon, confident the Hawks can bounce back in Round 2 to prove the club's detractors wrong.
The Hawks lost by 59 points in the Sunday afternoon clash, sinking straight to the bottom of the ladder at the conclusion of the opening round of the 2023 season.
Despite the disappointing loss, the midfielder remained hopeful that the Essendon loss was just an "outlier".
“That game was an outlier for us, we're not expecting to play like that every week,” Worpel said to media on Friday.
“Essendon were good to their credit, but we weren't very good on the day.
“But we're going to back our system in, back our players and back our coaches in, so we'll see how we go this week.
“Sydney is a good contested team as they always have been, that's something they pride themselves on.
“We'll definitely be looking to improve our pressure and contested footy from the weekend.”
The Hawks farewelled over 1000 games of experience following the 2022 season, leaving them as the youngest side in the competition with an average age of 22.9 years, and averaging just 42.6 games of experience.
Many have tipped the Hawks to claim the wooden spoon this season as their rebuild continues, but Worpel is ready for their Round 2 form to do the talking.
"Round 1 is just one game," Worpel said.
"We could go the whole year and not lose another game and everyone will say 'how good are Hawthorn'.
"We're a young team and we are still learning, so hopefully it's an outlier, I think it is."
Hawthorn will travel to Sydney to take on the Swans on Sunday at the SCG, with play scheduled to start at 1:10pm (AEDT)
