IF HAWTHORN did not have the prefix "reigning premier" attached to its name, it would be viewed as a middle-of-the-road team that, with slightly better fortune, should find a spot in the eight's lower reaches.

We don't see the Hawks for what they are this year —a member of the competition's broadly-based, battling middle class — because we still view them through premiership goggles. Forget for a minute that they won the flag, a fantasy Geelong people will happily indulge, and remove their premiership make-up. What do you see?

Following a seven-goal defeat in which the scoreboard flattered, the Hawks sit at 6-6, with a percentage of 94.9. They haven't had a tough draw. Their best victories have been over Carlton, courtesy of a Brendan Fevola miss from 15 metres, and Sydney. Of those six wins, five have been over teams that sit outside tonight's top eight. They haven't played St Kilda or the Western Bulldogs yet. Over the next eight weeks, they meet the top three teams, plus Collingwood and Adelaide for the second time.

To make the top four, which was still widely tipped until yesterday, they need to win at least 13 games, perhaps 14, given the lousy percentage. That's at least seven and maybe eight of their last 10 games. Not much chance of that happening, on what we've seen in 12 rounds.

Yesterday, they were embarrassed in all the combative areas — contested possessions were a whopping 129 to 95 in Brisbane's favour, tackles were 83 to 53 and the inside 50-metres count 55 to 38. There's little advantage in kicking to Lance Franklin and Jarryd Roughead when they get such limited supply.

Alastair Clarkson knows where they sit. He described their current standing as "very much middle of the pack", adding that they needed to improve "significantly" merely to make the final eight, "let alone feature prominently in September".

Clarkson's Cluster, the rolling zone that opposition clubs desperately strove to imitate over summer, has been ditched in recent weeks, replaced by what looks like meat-and-potatoes, man-on-man footy. In military terms, this is what you call a strategic retreat.

Hawthorn, clearly, either thinks it doesn't have sufficient fit and available personnel to successfully employ the zone (Luke Hodge and a competent defence being paramount to its success) or it considers that the competition has busted the cluster, and moved on.

In hindsight, the 2008 grand final might have been the Cluster's Last Stand.

Regardless of the reasons, the reversion to man-on-man is another instance in which 2009 bears no resemblance to last year. The past, as they say, is another country.

For Clarkson, the concern would be more basic — getting hands on the ball, especially in the midfield. This is difficult when Sam Mitchell is getting smothered, Hodge is hurt and deployed behind the ball in any case and Chance Bateman's fitness is fragile. There isn't a game plan yet invented that works without winning the ball.

Trent Croad, Stephen Gilham and Rick Ladson might return at some stage, though Croad appears distant, but how many players succeed after missing more than half a season? It matters not what caused Hawthorn to slide to middle order. That's what it is now, and there is — despite the fortnightly false dawns that follow a win over mediocre opposition — scant evidence that the 2008 team will reappear this year.