Consecutive 86-point defeats - the second of which came in Monday's MCG loss to Geelong - have left the Hawks on the bottom of the ladder, winless from four starts. McEvoy was teary as he made his way off the ground after the Cats thrashing, which was his 150th game. While he said the milestone was largely irrelevant given Hawthorn's plight, he pointed to players in his age bracket as those who had to help fill the gap left by Jordan Lewis and Sam Mitchell, both of whom left the club in stunning circumstances during last year's trade period.

While Shaun Burgoyne, Josh Gibson, Luke Hodge, Jarryd Roughead, Paul Puopolo and the injured Grant Birchall are all 29 or older, it is the group of between the ages of 24 of 28 that still makes up a large chunk of Hawthorn's team. Ben Stratton, Isaac Smith, James Frawley and Ricky Henderson (all 28), McEvoy and Rioli (both 27), Luke Breust (26), Jack Gunston and Liam Shiels (both 25), and Will Langford (24) all played in the loss to the Cats, while Brendan Whitecross (27), Ryan Schoenmakers and Ty Vickery (both 26), and Taylor Duryea (25) have also played at senior level this year.

McEvoy said that it was unfair to attribute the Hawks' decline to the loss of Mitchell and Lewis, who finished first and second respectively in Hawthorn's best and fairest last year. "No doubt they were great leaders around this club, but I don't think that's any sort of excuse," McEvoy told Fairfax Media.

"There's still a wealth of experience here. We knew that we had to move on from guys. We needed probably guys in my bracket to step up a little bit more."

Just as coach Alastair Clarkson bemoaned the Hawks' poor skills so far in 2017, McEvoy said that Hawthorn were struggling with the game's basics. "It's hard to pinpoint it. But I think we've just lost some of the things we've done well for a long time," he said.

"Just doing the basics really well. We're having too many fumbles and missed skills. That was putting us under pressure. We're having to chase defensively a lot. There's a lot of things we're not doing very well at the minute."

He added that he wasn't sure whether effort or execution was the primary factor at play. "It's hard to know if it's the chicken or the egg."

However the dual premiership big man, who has played 59 games for the Hawks since being traded to Waverley from St Kilda, remained defiant in the face of adversity. "This game's not for the faint-hearted. Sometimes it gets really tough, and we're in a real tough spot at the minute," he said.

"But there's a lot of character in this playing group, and at our footy club, so like I say we'll keep persevering."