When Opportunity Knocks

Opportunities will present themselves across the 2025 season... who will be brave enough to take hold of them?

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Think of this as the flip side of my good friend Nat Martin’s most recent piece (check it out straight after reading this) where he talked about the heat being on a number of players at the Hawks this year. That’s the pressure of of being a good team.

A football club can be an interesting place, with incredibly complex dynamics. It is a place where a club can be flying on and off the field, but individual players can be under various levels of pressure.

These pressures can range from the pressure to be the best version of yourself (think Will Day, Jai Newcombe), the pressure to lead from the front (Dylan Moore, James Sicily), the pressure to hold your spot in the team from the last game (Finn Maginness, Josh Ward), the pressure to get back into the team (Changkouth Jiath, Cam Mackenzie), the pressure to get back to full fitness (Mitch Lewis, James Blanck) and the pressure to mount a case strong enough for a debut (Will McCabe, Jasper Scaife).

Of course, there are plenty of other pressures as well, but with those pressures comes opportunities. This is where we will dive into today, the opportunities within the Hawthorn list, and who are the players primed to grab them with both hands.

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It’s important to state that all five of the below players will have varying opportunities throughout 2025, and each individuals opportunity will look different to the others, but you’ll understand what I mean when we unpack them.

Cam Mackenzie

First cab off the rank is Cam Mackenzie, this will be a shock to no one. Mackenzie is the talk of the town, both internally (Peter Burge podcast) and externally (Tim Watson on SEN). It’s been commented more than a few times how much Mackenzie reminds Hawks fans of his current AFL coach when Mitchell burst on to the scene in his early years.

Mackenzie is ready to break out

Mackenzie is exciting for what he could offer and his opportunity is very uniquely his. Hawthorn’s midfield is deep and strong, but if Mitchell and his coaches could add something to the starting mix, it would be another midfielder who can escape traffic, and deliver cleaning into the forwards. Mackenzie has this ability and more, and his opportunity is that he adds a different dimension to a fairly same-same midfield mix.

If Mackenzie takes a big step early in 2025, the Hawks could be ready to really challenge. That’s a big call, and a lot of pressure on a young player finding his way, but it’s also a big opportunity.

James Sicily

The captain finally has the requisite defensive support to allow him to play his role, but the opportunity in this case is around the nature of what that role will be. The additions of Josh Battle and Tom Barras, combined with the development and maturity of Jack Scrimshaw and Sam Frost gives Hawthorn and Sicily the flexibility and opportunity to play a number of roles, all of which will allow Sicily to provide maximum damage to the opposition.

Bring this back pls

In previous years, Sicily has had to play well above his height (he stands at 186cm, hardly the height of a KPD) often matching up against the competitions best key forwards (his battles against Tom Lynch were always interesting). Sicily is without question Hawthorn’s best defender and arguably Hawthorn’s best player, but how can the Hawks get the most out of him? There are a couple very clear options:

1. Play him as a key forward. This is an opportunity to increase Hawthorn’s scoring ability and make the forward set up much more dangerous. Sicily has a strong grounding as a forward, and would immediately take the opposition’s best defender, freeing up Mabior Chol immediately, and down the line taking some pressure off the returning Mitch Lewis and Calsher Dear.

2. Play him as a loose defender. If the Hawks see more value in playing Sicily down back, freeing him up to use his weapons (aerial ability, contested marking, reading of the ball in flight and disposal by foot) is imperative. A combination Barrass, Battle and Frost can play the negating roles, allowing Sicily the opportunity to become a damaging player off half back, and releasing Josh Weddle to the wing (more on that later)

3. Play him in the midfield. This option is my least favourite, but not as wild as it seems. Mitchell has shown his willingness to use Sicily in the middle of the ground, allowing him the option to utilise that incredible leg to drill 60m passes onto oncoming forwards chests. I wouldn’t be adverse to seeing this in patches across the season, and keep an eye out for a stint as a marking wingman 👀

Josh Weddle

If anyone at Hawthorn has the skills and opportunity to step up and join Will Day and James Sicily as elite players in the competition, it’s Josh Weddle. His unique combination of speed, size, athleticism, competitiveness and endurance is not often seen at AFL level, and when Weddle find the consistency of performance and consistency of impact to go with his ability, the AFL better watch out.

Another beneficiary of Mark McKenzie’s off-season recruitment drive, Weddle will likely be used in the middle and forward half for the majority of the season. I strongly believe that finding a set position will be important for Weddle’s continued development, and will allow him to take the next step, but the opportunity to experiment with him to best serve the team will may negate my desire in that space.

Time to salute

How Weddle is used will be an interesting case study over the coming weeks, and it is one that the Hawks need to get right in order to give Weddle the opportunity to take the next step and become the player we all believe he can be.

Massimo D’Ambrosio

If 2024 was a break out year for D’Ambrosio, then season 2025 is an opportunity for him to cement himself as one of the premier wingmen in the competition.

D’Ambrosio averaged 21 disposals, five marks, two tackles, 2.5 I50s and 2.5 R50s a game in 24 games last season, effectively doubling his output from his two years at Essendon. The opportunity for him is to take those numbers and build again, making it impossible for the All-Australian selectors to omit him from the final team in 2025, after making the 40 man quad last year.

What’s that in the distance? An AA jacket?

D’Ambrosio has the ability to impact the game in so many positive ways, and his running power coupled with his kicking is incredibly important in the way Hawthorn plays. His coaches will also want to see an increase in his scoreboard pressure, with seven33 goals being his output last year, D’Ambrosio should be looking to double that in 2025.

Will McCabe

The final man on our Opportunity Knocks list is likely to be a surprise a few, and the probability of Will McCabe actually playing at AFL level is slim, but so was the probably of Calsher Dear playing 17 games in his debut season.

McCabe came to the Hawks as a talented, attacking and athletic key position player who had the level of versatility Hawthorn loves, playing underage football in all areas of the field. An early pre-season injury delayed his start to his time at the Hawks, but McCabe fought back to play some good football at Box Hill, and showed glimpses of his elite traits with dash off half back and strong intercept marking.

More of this kind of connection

Mitch Lewis and Calsher Dear are out in the early parts of the season, and there is an opportunity to grab hold of a position in the forward half for the right person. McCabe showed some signs in the brief cameo against Geelong, playing in the forward half and presenting well. If he doesn’t play early at AFL level, starting the season strongly for Box Hill will be the aim, while patiently waiting for the opportunity to present itself at Hawthorn.

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