HAWTHORN recruit Jack Ginnivan and captain James Sicily are both in doubt for Saturday’s game against Geelong at GMHBA Stadium, while young forward Calsher Dear is set to miss after failing to train this week.
Ginnivan left the track early on Thursday morning due to a lower leg concern, after struggling through a fitness test at Waverley Park.
The Collingwood premiership player is understood to have suffered the injury late in the 61-point win over West Coast and might be given closer to the game to prove his fitness.
Sicily completed the first half of the session before training away before watching on while consulting senior coach Sam Mitchell and high performance boss Peter Burge.
The 29-year-old dislocated his shoulder for the second time in two months at Optus Stadium and finished the game on the bench.
Surgery was ruled out in the short-term earlier this week, but Sicily might require a similar rehabilitation program to the one he followed after dislocating his shoulder against the Western Bulldogs in round eight.
Sicily missed two games in May but has performed at his All-Australian best across the past six weeks.
"We're not sure just yet, we'll see how he goes at training and how comfortable he is," Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell said on Thursday.
"We were probably a little bit lucky. It won't be too long, he certainly won't need surgery just yet. If he does miss, it will probably be just one (game)."
Dear watched on before heading inside and didn't train on Tuesday due to soreness. The 18-year-old has played the past eight games since making his debut against the Western Bulldogs in round eight.
Key forward Mitch Lewis appears ready to return for the first time at AFL level since the last time the Hawks faced Geelong back on Easter Monday, when severe weather delayed the start of the fourth quarter by 45 minutes.
The 25-year-old has played two games in the VFL either side of the mid-season bye, kicking two goals for Box Hill in his first full game in months.
"He just has to get through training today,” Mitchell said.
"He is much closer to being ready. I was really pleased with his output – it was a tough day for a key forward in the rain at Box Hill – but I thought he competed well and gave himself a chance."
Veteran small forward Luke Breust will return to the 23 after being managed for the trip to Western Australia. The dual All-Australian started as the sub in the six games before the bye.
Hawthorn has played once at GMHBA Stadium since 2006 – behind closed doors in round 2, 2020 – for a total of three trips this century. The Hawks marked tighter ground dimensions at Waverley Park this week to mirror the 115m width of Kardinia Park, which is much less than 141m at the MCG, 140m at Marvel Stadium and University of Tasmania Stadium.
Despite winning seven of its past eight games to enter round 17 half a game outside the eight at 8-7, Mitchell said finals aren't on the radar just yet.
"Very much internally, we look at the one-game block. I think we look at the last couple of games we played and we were really pleased to win away against West Coast, but Geelong in Geelong, we haven't played there in 15 years. That's a a stern test," he said.
"One of the toughest trips you can do in footy is Geelong in Geelong. We played a practice match there last year and that didn't go too well, either. I think Geelong down there is as far ahead as we need to look. We can't influence anything except for the game right ahead of us."
Hawthorn is set to be aggressive again this free agency and trade period after securing four players last October, with the club in the hunt for St Kilda defender Josh Battle, Western Bulldogs midfielder Bailey Smith and Greater Western Sydney utility Harry Perryman.
Mitchell wouldn't detail any targets but said the Hawks are busy behind the scenes under the direction of four-time premiership player Jarryd Roughead, who returned to Waverley Park in January as player acquisition manager.
"I'm never going to go into details about which players or who is talking to who, but I think every club in the competition is looking to strengthen their list. A lot of that is around the draft, free agency and the trade period, But those things don't happen in trade week, you've got to do a lot of prep," he said.
"Our list management team has a long list of players they would love to talk to; some are out-of-contract, some have seven-year deals, so you can't talk to them unfortunately. We have a lot of players on our list that we would love to join our group. It would be the wrong thing from our list management if they weren't contacting those players' managers and going from there."
