ESSENDON has found itself in a nasty hole, low on the ladder, saddled with a list not good enough, and with some serious reconstruction required before it becomes a serious contender again.

The Bombers have plenty of problems, none the least tonight when they take on Hawthorn at Telstra Dome. The Hawks are perched on top of the ladder, having lost only one game.

That's cause for concern. And Essendon might also have found cause for envy this week as it studied tonight's opponent. As the Dons ponder their list problems, they will have been examining a rival whose capacity to regenerate its playing stocks over the past five years or so has been in complete contrast.

Essendon had just competed in its seventh successive finals series in 2004 when Alastair Clarkson took over as Hawthorn coach, the Hawks having just finished a miserable 15th with only four wins, its worst result in 40 years.

The Hawks have come full circle since, and not simply with the aid of some handy picks in that first national draft under Clarkson, which delivered Jarryd Roughead, Lance Franklin and Jordan Lewis.

There's been a clear focus and direction with the appointment of Chris Pelchen as player personnel and strategy manager, some ground rules established and some recruiting non-negotiables put in place.

Hawthorn was paying too much in its salary cap for too little return. It was a situation it acted swiftly to rectify, and with little sentiment, names such as Nick Holland, Jonathan Hay, Nathan Thompson, Peter Everitt, Angelo Lekkas, John Barker and Mark Graham biting the dust.

Together, Pelchen and Clarkson prepared a three-year recruiting and list-management contracting model after a detailed analysis of the club's list against all 600-odd players in the AFL.

From a decade's worth of data, the Hawks constructed a "premiership model", which took in factors such as playing origins, height, weight, games played, style and positions. A dozen player types and positional needs were identified.

And the Hawks have just about filled all 12, the year after the Franklin, Roughead and Lewis coup also landing five of the first 22 draft picks, and utilising them with some rigid criteria, such as, after having finished 2004 the worst side in the AFL for kicking efficiency, making kicking the No. 1 priority in any potential recruit.

Most importantly, while Clarkson has his say, and was the key to the recruitment of Stuart Dew last summer, it is Pelchen who has the final call on who goes on and off the list.

That last point won't be lost on Essendon recruiting manager Adrian Dodoro, who, like even his feted recruiting predecessor at Windy Hill, Noel Judkins, has too often had to bite his tongue in recent years while former coach Kevin Sheedy gave the ultimate thumbs up or down on a potential Bomber pick-up.

As much as it hurts to dip its lid to a bitter foe of two decades ago and one to whom, even these days, there remains a fair degree of antipathy, the new-look Essendon of 2008 will acknowledge that when it comes to list restructuring, the Hawks have done it smarter, better and more quickly.

That at least provides some sort of model for the future. But little comfort for what looks likely to be some painful lessons over the short term.