Dylan Moore’s redemption story will reach its latest test when Hawthorn face the Brisbane Lions in Saturday night’s preliminary final, less than a year after the forward spent a night in an Arizona jail following an end-of-season incident.
Moore, 27, and teammate Connor Macdonald were arrested by Scottsdale police after trespassing and climbing on to a scissor lift suspended about 2.5 metres above the ground during a boozy trip to Phoenix. Both were charged with third-degree criminal trespass, although Moore’s case was formally dismissed in July.
Moore was also arrested on a charge of possessing drug paraphernalia after police found a plastic bag containing a crystalline substance during a search. That charge was quickly dropped.
The episode cost Moore the Hawthorn vice-captaincy and led to a series of requirements imposed by the Scottsdale city attorney, including a 300-dollar diversion fee, an alcohol screening and 16 hours of alcohol education.
Yet the small forward remains one of Hawthorn’s most respected figures as the club stand one victory away from a grand final. Moore said the support he received from the club had made him determined to repay the faith shown in him.
“I think just walking in every day to the football club, I wanted to put my best foot forward, be the best clubman, best teammate I could, and the club showed me so much love and care and respect, and I couldn’t thank them enough,” he said.
“I felt like I’ve got to play good football, in a way, to repay the faith and the love they showed me, and feel like if I can play my role every week, then it shows that I can be a good clubman and a good teammate, even when stuff around you happens.”
Moore said the most difficult part of the incident had been explaining it to his partner and family, who faced questions about what had happened while he was able to focus on returning to the football club.
“Yeah, I think it’s more tough for the people around me … like, my partner, my family, they’re the ones getting all the questions,” he said. “I can just come into the club every day and kind of not focus on that, whereas they go to work and get asked, ‘Oh, what’s going on?’”
He said speaking to his parents, partner, coach Sam Mitchell and the club had left him feeling that he had disappointed those closest to him.
“Telling my parents, my partner, the club, Sam – I just felt like I let a lot of people down and, yeah, I’m just so lucky that they showed so much love and care for me the following months and down,” Moore said.
Hawthorn teammates back Dylan Moore
Hawthorn co-captain Jai Newcombe said Moore had responded to the setback with the same professionalism he had shown throughout his career.
“Dylan’s been the same Dylan that I’ve that I’ve always known, and yeah, obviously, had the slip up in the off-season, pre-season, but, you know, he’s done a lot away from the game to earn the respect that you think he needed to back,” Newcombe said.
Newcombe described Moore as one of the club’s best trainers and said his standards had been particularly important to a developing small-forward group.
“He’s been a role model here for a long time, especially in training standards and what we expect. He is, by far, one of the best trainers that we’ve got here,” he said.
Moore has also taken on a coaching role this year, joining Will Day, Massimo D’Ambrosio and Jack Scrimshaw in working with the Eastern Football Netball League representative under-15 boys’ team for 10 weeks.
The experience has allowed him to pass on lessons from nine seasons in the AFL, while also reinforcing the qualities that have shaped his own career: work ethic and commitment.
Moore credits former Hawthorn assistant coach Craig McRae with helping him identify those strengths after he managed only 10 senior games in his first three seasons. Rather than concentrating on his weaknesses, McRae urged him to develop the attributes that had helped him earn selection in the 2017 national draft.
Moore said a strong performance against Gold Coast at the end of 2020 gave him the belief that he could influence matches. He then played 20 games in 2021 and became more settled in Hawthorn’s best 23.
“I think continuity is so important in football, and the more you play, the more you can kind of relax before a game and be like, ‘All right, I’m good enough. I just need to do this, this week’,” he said.
Those qualities have helped Moore navigate a difficult 2026. With the Lions standing between Hawthorn and a grand-final appearance, his return from the Arizona incident is now being measured not only by his conduct away from the game, but by the role he continues to play on the field.
