Hawks the grinners after proving they pick winners Hawthorn's Brian Lake celebrates his grand final win with former Western Bulldogs teammate Adam Cooney. Picture: Michael Klein Source: TheAustralian IT'S only a small part of the Hawthorn success story, but its mature-age talent identification has been outstanding. What started with Stuart Dew's contribution to upset Geelong in the 2008 grand final blossomed to more than a quarter of the Hawks' personnel being hand-selected from other clubs for such a game. Defender Josh Gibson was recruited from North Melbourne as a willing participant because he wanted to win a flag. In the same year, at the end of 2009, the gifted Shaun Burgoyne crossed from Port Adelaide after winning a premiership five years earlier. Then came Gibson's former teammate, ruckman David Hale, followed a year later by key forward Jack Gunston after two years with Adelaide. The Norm Smith Medal runner-up has played in grand finals in each of his two seasons with the Hawks and was a match-winner on Saturday with four goals. The icing on the cake was the recruitment of Brian Lake from the Western Bulldogs to fill a vulnerable last line of defence after last year's loss to Sydney. Luring Lake, 31, became even more crucial after the breakdown of key-position player Ryan Shoenmakers, who has had his ups and downs when played as a key-defender. He required a knee reconstruction after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament four games into this season. Hawks chief executive Stuart Fox yesterday praised his list and recruiting manager Graham Wright and his staff for their astute judgments of players. "I think Graham and our recruiting team have done a wonderful job with topping up our list and handpicking for various positions," Fox said. You only have to look at the grand final effort for proof. It's been the result of a plan that's come together. Chris Fagan, who is almost certain to soon be appointed general manager of football operations after serving half the season in the role as an interim position, said the Hawks did not necessarily target big-name players. "What we've been able to do, and do well, is to go after someone that we believe will help us," Fagan said. Fox described Lake's Norm Smith Medal win as "amazing" recognition after his 22-possession and 10-mark performance from full-back. I remember 18 months ago we were having discussions around Lake and we were going, do we or don't we? Fox said. And here we are today with the Norm Smith medallist. It was one of those propositions for us, do you take someone more at the tail end of his career? He's served us pretty well, hasn't he? He's been fantastic. While the Hawks have had tremendous success with players from other clubs, including former Port Adelaide and St Kilda defender Brent Guerra who is likely to retire this week, the club's promising youth was on display when its VFL affiliate club Box Hill won yesterday week's premiership. The Hawks have also been well served by ex-Geelong midfielder Jonathan Simpkin, who played 14 games in his first season with his second club. He contributed well in the final term when he came on to replace Max Bailey. Knee reconstruction candidates Matthew Suckling and Shoenmakers are ready to resume early next year, and Brendan Whitecross later on. Fox said: "If you don't continue to regenerate and keep thinking about your list, the competition will pass you by pretty quickly. The great thing about this year is that we got the opportunity to play some kids -- Bradley Hill, Taylor Duryea, Jed Anderson and Shane Savage -- and they injected some energy into the team. We've got a great mix of youth and mature-age players.