Eye spy with my little eye...

Some early January pre-season training observations

Subscribe to Hawks Insiders for all the news through Hawthorn-tinted glasses and more exclusive content.

Which players are yet to find their groove after returning in 2024?

Who has been given the first match sim opportunities on the Wings?

Will Blake Hardwick stay forward or will he move back to his best spot in defence?

Which players are set to rotate through the midfield with Will Day unlikley to be ready for Round 1?

And which young sons of GUNS were out in force to watch the team train?

Answers to some of these questions have begun to present themselves, and we are ramping up the level of excitement as the pre-season schedule heats up.

Thursday 11 January

All the chatter was about the injury sustained by Will Day in the opening session for the year. Was it sustained during the session or did Will return back having sustained the injury earlier?

Either way, here are the observations from what was largely a running session:

• The session started with heavy running - it looked to be repeat 1km runs from the painted blue lines about 20m inside the boundary;

• For the running drill the group was broken into four groups of 10;

• Josh Weddle, Finn Maginness, Sam Butler and Connor Macdonald were the leaders of the quickest group which also included Jai Serong;

  

• James Blanck, and Mabior Chol headed straight to the rub down bench after their group run;

• Denver Grainger Barrass and Clay Tucker were the slowest of the slow group which had all the draftees in it (along with the Captain).

• Jack Gunston and Seamus Mitchell were given other activities - they joined in the main session after the runs;

• Chad Wingard spent the session doing his own work.

• Blake Hardwick was still involved training with the forwards, as was Lloyd Meek.

  

Monday 15 January

With Sam Mitchell back observing training from the stands, there was plenty to take out of yesterday’s session.

Positionally we saw a few players in roles that could be a window to where they will start the season, while we had some very very interesting onlookers…

• Mitch Lewis* was a non-participant with the main group and did the lightest of activities - he walked laps and rode the bike. Nothing was discernible from his movements and he had no visible strapping;

• Chad Wingard worked to his own program;

• Training included managed match simulation - full ground, but the tops and bibs teams were not discernible as to probables versus possibles;

• We didn’t get any insight into midfield combinations - our main mids (ie Conor Nash, James Worpel, Josh Ward, Connor Macdonald, Henry Hustwaite, Cam Mackenzie, Jai Newcombe and Cooper Stephens) swapped teams regularly. Similarly, our key backs played on both sides;

  

• Blake Hardwick played forward;

• Karl Amon played off half back;

• Changkuoth Jiath and Massimo D'Ambrosio played on the wings;

• Denver Grainger-Barras played in the back half, as did Will McCabe

• Nick Watson played mainly forward and had a short spurt in midfield;

• James Blanck went head to head with Mabior Chol who moved well in the match sim.

  

• Jack Gunston and Seamus Mitchell were the only ones to drop out of the main drills from time to time to do run throughs, and both missed the first full ground managed match simulation activity;

• The main group finished the program with solid running activity - basically goal square to goal square and back four times with a two minute break in between each set;

• Josh Weddle, Lloyd Meek, Jai Serong and a couple of others did sprints around the boundary line;

• We had a couple of visitors participating in some of the drills - Ned Maginness and Ky Burgoyne (Shaun’s eldest son). They were onlookers for the match sim.

*Media reports yesterday have noted that Mitch Lewis rolled his ankle over the weekend - hence the light duties.

---

Follow Hawks Insiders on Twitter and Facebook.