THE Hawks have named an unchanged line-up and includedXavier Ellis, Ben Dixon and Thomas Murphy on an extended bench for the round 10match against Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium on Sunday.
Dixon,a late withdrawal from last week’s team, was replaced by defender-turned-forwardDanny Jacobs for the Hawks’ spectacular victory against reigning premiers WestCoast in Launceston.
Dixonhas recovered from the niggling knee injury which curtailed his pre-season, andis named on the bench alongside Xavier Ellis, Jacobs, Tom Murphy, MichaelOsborne, Jarryd Roughead and Clinton Young.
Hawthorn football operations manager Mark Evans said Dixon trained at AuroraStadium last Friday but later pulled up with inflammation on his knee.
“It’s been a whole management thing for him,” Evans said.
“He trained and later came to the match committee and said hewasn’t sure about his knee. He was a bit sore. He said he could have played, buthe chose not to … it’s a good sign when someone puts the team before themselves.”
The Hawks and Port are perched on six wins a piece with just7.2 per cent separating the clubs infourth and seventh positions on the ladder respectively.
AAMI Stadium has not been a happy hunting ground for theHawks who have managed just four wins at the windswept ground.
The Power have won their past six games against Hawthorn,and brown and gold devotees prefer to forget the last meeting at AAMI in round11 last year, when the visitors were beaten by 96 points.
“We had a big loss that night, but we are a very differentside now – and so is Port,” Evans said.
“Port had 21 players who had played more than 50 games inthat match, while Hawthorn had about eight players who had played 50 games.
“We think we are well placed to play them this weekend. Wethink we need to respect them. They’ll be smarting, they’ll come out with allguns blazing and we’ll have to counter that.”
Captain Richie Vandenberg will line up for his second VFLmatch with Box Hill Hawks this weekend.
“He’s okay. He needs to treat these games in the VFL like apre-season,” Evans said.
“He needs to play a full game at full intensity. He needs tohave a good three-week block in the VFL.”
The Hawks – Port Adelaidematch is on Sunday and begins at 1.10pm EST.
THE TEAM
B: Brent Guerra, Stephen Gilham, Grant Birchall
HB: CampbellBrown, Trent Croad, Rick Ladson
C: Joel Smith, Sam Mitchell, Jordan Lewis
HF: Ben McGlynn, Lance Franklin, Shane Crawford
F: Chance Bateman, Tim Boyle, Simon Taylor
FOLL: Robert Campbell, Brad Sewell, Luke Hodge
I/C (from): Ben Dixon, Xavier Ellis, Danny Jacobs, TomMurphy, Michael Osborne, Jarryd Roughead, ClintonYoung
In: Ellis, Dixon,Murphy
Out: -
