HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson is confident free agent recruit Ty Vickery will work his way back into the team after being overlooked for Saturday's clash against the Brisbane Lions in favour of rookie Jack Fitzpatrick.
With Lions ruckman Stefan Martin looming as a hurdle for the Hawks at University of Tasmania Stadium, Clarkson decided Ben McEvoy needs more ruck support as the team looks for back-to-back wins for the first time this season.
The coach said it was a close battle between Fitzpatrick and Vickery, who last played in round three, but the match committee needed to reward form.
"He was really close to coming back in this week to be fair," the coach said of Vickery.
"He's kicked goals at VFL level, he's averaged three a week for the last three games and he's acquitted himself well.
"In this case 'Fitzy' put together six or seven great games of footy that just meant we had to reward the player who had been the better of the bigger fellas.
"Ty is playing well and he'll get his chance at some stage I'm sure."
Clarkson said Vickery was not doing anything wrong at VFL level since returning from a two-week back injury, with the 200cm forward kicking three goals and taking six marks for Box Hill last weekend.
The coach said Fitzpatrick had been the standout performer in the VFL, however, breaking in for his first senior game this season and allowing forward Tim O'Brien to play as a permanent forward.
"We've been rucking Tim O'Brien as our second ruckman the last few weeks and he's acquitted himself quite well," Clarkson said.
"But he's not a natural ruckman and Stef Martin is a big strong ruckman that does the bulk of their work.
"We probably need two guys who have played a lot of ruck to go up against Stef … we just want to make sure we've got real strength in that area of the game."
Clarkson will come up against his former right-hand man, Chris Fagan, for the first time on Saturday and said the pair had exchanged text messages on Thursday night.
The Lions' coach and former Hawthorn football manager, who worked alongside Clarkson for nine years, had extensive intel about the Hawks, but Clarkson was not concerned.
"There's every chance he knows everything about us because he's been here so long," Clarkson said.
"We've made a couple of changes but by and large the things we've done well over the journey we're still trying to do now but we're just not executing as well as we have in the past."
"We're great mates and I obviously know the family really well, but someone's got to win and someone's got to lose.
"Whatever happens we know that for two to three hours we'll be at one another and then afterwards hopefully we'll have a beer together."
