BRIGHT DAYS AHEAD FOR HAWKS
A BATTLE-HARDENED Will Day says he’s excited about Hawthorn’s future as they prepare to stop the resurgent Roos from their new run n’ gun ways on Saturday in what will be the Hawks first ever game on the ‘carpet like’ surface at Blundstone Arena.
The young star defender – who was proudly displaying a glowing shiner under his right eye courtesy of friendly fire from teammate Mitch Lewi – said despite having won its past two games the Hawks were remaining level-headed but optimistic about their future.
“Even though we’ve had a few wins our feelings have been pretty constant throughout the year but we feel like we’ve been making progress each week,” Day said. “The wins help us out with morale but we are pretty up and about and all pretty excited about where we are heading.”
Despite Saturday’s opponent sitting on the bottom of the ladder the 21-year-old said the Hawks were well aware the resurgent Roos had enough firepower to clip their wings after an impressive win over Richmond last week.
“They’ve had a pretty tough year but you can see they’ve been grinding away and they’ve been rewarded for their effort these last few weeks and especially last week which was a good spectacle. They’ve got talented players and some that we’ve definitely highlighted that can change a game so we’ll be looking at them.
“Their ball movement has probably picked up a little as well and they’re playing a bit more of an attacking brand which we are looking to stop and we are coming into this game with real intent and know we need to play at our best to get the win this week.”
In what will be the Hawks first ever game at Blundstone Arena – and second ever game for points in Hobart – the emerging star said he was looking forward to playing on the pristine surface at Bellerive Oval.
“I haven’t actually been to Hobart before so for me and a handful of players it’s our first time and definitely the majority of us haven’t played here so we are excited.”
The battle of Tasmania’s two affiliated sides will get under way at 1.45pm on Saturday.