Cyclone Alfred means Hawthorn's game against Sydney at the SCG on Friday night is now the season opener, giving coach Sam Mitchell and his players an even greater sense of the unknown.
A year ago, the Hawks lost their first five games before they stormed back into the finals, unleashing Hokball and going within three points of beating Port Adelaide in a semi-final.
Now they face the Swans, hurting from another humiliating grand final loss with Dean Cox as their new coach, plus having to readjust without injured star onballer Errol Gulden.
"You always look backwards, but knowing that you need to look forward," Mitchell said at Wednesday training.
"The thing that we look backwards with ... when we work really hard, we improve. So we have evidence now that we can improve and we know that we need to - we need to beat the top sides regularly and when it matters.
"We had a little taste of finals footy. We want to try to get back to there.
"The first round of any season is a great unknown - you do all this preparation with very little true feedback."
A documentary of Hawthorn's pre-season, to be screened on Wednesday night, features Mitchell telling his players that they will need "a little bit of rage about us when we need it - and the rage is coming."
He says there is plenty of room for improvement if they are to build on last year's progress.
"Realistically, we weren't good enough last year and we were sixth and there were five teams ahead of us - the Swans were certainly one of those," Mitchell said.
"We didn't finish that well, actually.
"Our consistency, quarter to quarter, our close-game scenario training needs to improve.
"I didn't think there was any shortage of things we could improve across our pre-season."
Hawthorn will not risk Changkuoth Jiath as he nurses "a naggy hip", while big-name recruits Josh Battle and Tom Barrass will make their debuts for the club.
"He's obviously an impressive and beautiful athlete, but he needs to be pretty close to right," Mitchell said of Jiath.
"Risking him at this time of year doesn't make a lot of sense with us. When he's been injured, it's been a bit longer than it might be for some others."
Mitchell was pleasantly surprised with how well Battle and Barrass worked together in last week's pre-season game against the Western Bulldogs.
"I actually thought they performed a bit better than I thought they might," he said.
Mitchell added it's an honour to play the first game of the season, while mindful of the worrying circumstances in south-east Queensland.
"I rang a couple of people in Brisbane ... it was a beautiful, sunny day and it was literally calm before the storm," he said.
"First and foremost you have to think about the people there ... battening down the hatches for whatever's coming.
"Being part of opening round is obviously a privilege in itself and now it being the first game of the season adds a little bit more."
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