Hawks close in on ‘well rounded’ side
Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell remains confident his side can return to its impressive form from the end of last season with a more “well rounded” team once its stars have returned.
A quartet of injured firstchoice players in Will Day, Mitch Lewis, Changkuoth Jiath and Luke Breust could all be back in Hawthorn’s side within a fortnight.
But the Hawks’ season could be effectively over if they cannot salvage a win against the Suns on the Gold Coast on Saturday or in a tantalising round 6 clash against former Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson’s North Melbourne.
Mitchell said the 0-4 start to the season had been disappointing, but he was buoyed by the impact returning players could have, pointing to Seamus Mitchell after the defender returned from a broken jaw in the loss to Collingwood in Adelaide on Sunday.
“Seamus comes back, and we get the confidence to be able to move Dimma (Blake Hardwick) forward knowing you’ve got someone who can defend a small (forward),” he said.
“He’s not a huge name (in) the public eye, but he’s quite important to the way that we want to play. It gives us a team that’s a little more well rounded. (Hardwick) will train forward today, we want to have a look at a couple of things.”
After his four-goal second half almost cracked the reigning premier, Hardwick looms as an important forward target against the Suns in an inexperienced attack featuring talls Mabior Chol and Max Ramsden.
Lewis was ruled out of the clash due to an inflamed knee rather than the hamstring strain he suffered on Easter Monday, with Mitchell saying Lewis had been managing the knee over the summer.
“He’s had the (knee issue) for a while. We had it scanned and it was a little more flared up than we thought, so he’ll recover which will help him with his hamstring as well,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell said reigning best and fairest Day was “looking like an athlete” again as he built towards a return from a foot stress fracture, while he praised James Worpel for his consistency.