Hawthorn will assess whether or not Luke Breust can shout on the quantity required to assist his teammates earlier than ticking off his return from a painful throat damage.
The vice-captain suffered a bruised larynx within the Hawks’ loss to Carlton two weeks in the past and spent greater than every week unable to speak, with coach Sam Mitchell saying the return of his voice is a necessity earlier than he can return to the aspect.
Breust leads Hawthorn’s goalkicking this season with 28 targets from 14 video games and might be a vital presence up ahead towards a determined Kangaroos aspect trying to find their first win since spherical 2 on Sunday.
Mitchell mentioned the Hawks would wait till the final second to decide on the veteran.
“(He’s) not 100 per cent at this stage, his voice is still a bit iffy, but we’ll assess after training today and see how far he can yell,” he mentioned.
“The bruising has come down, but his voice is a bit scratchy, so we’ll make a decision later on.”
Star defender James Sicily will return after his three-week suspension, with Mitchell happy by his work throughout an intensive coaching block and a few teaching work expertise.
Mitchell mentioned fellow backman Changkuoth Jiath would play within the VFL barring one other last-minute hiccup just like the achilles soreness that dominated him out final weekend.
Jiath has not been seen at AFL stage since spherical 9 after battling a calf damage and returned through Box Hill a fortnight in the past.
“He played one game on limited minutes last week but then couldn’t get through training (before the GWS game), so a bit of a challenge there,” Mitchell mentioned.
“He’ll play at this stage … as long as he gets through training today, he’ll play at Box Hill.”
Mitchell declared tagger Finn Maginness a sure starter towards the Kangaroos, though he conceded it had been troublesome to suit the elite runner into his aspect.
Maginness has solely began in 5 video games this season, with Mitchell saying a persistent weak spot within the Hawks’ recreation had contributed to his choice struggles.
“Every time (Maginness) plays on someone on the inside obviously it limits some of our other midfielders,” Mitchell mentioned.
“Traditionally mids are either stock-standard midfielders who play there or they come up as a high half-forward.
“One of the challenges we’ve had is whenever we’ve played a high half-forward, we haven’t been able to retain the ball in our forward line, so we can’t afford to play five forwards the way some other teams can. We’ve really had to try to maintain six forwards to try to get it into our front half and lock it in there … Finn’s role over the journey will hopefully be more as a half-forward.”
Source: www.news.com.au
