While the Hawks may not have officially recorded a win for the pre-season, coach Alastair Clarkson is encouraged by the signs shown by the club widely tipped to claim the wooden spoon this year.
"Our preparation, while we haven't won a game, we've been really competitive. We've challenged some really good sides," Clarkson said at the Hawks' Family Day on Sunday.
"We played St Kilda, Geelong, Port Adelaide over there on the weekend, which is a tough ask to beat them in Adelaide and the other game was Fremantle in Perth and we took a bunch of kids over there and we were in front at half-time and then fell away in the second half."
"We haven't had big Spider (Everitt) out there for the last three weeks which is a major difference to us but he'll be back for round one everyone will be happy to know."
While the Hawks may have appeared competitive in the pre-season, Clarkson is realistic that 2005 may be dubbed as part of a rebuilding phase for the club.
"I think that they'll be a bit of a seachange at the club in terms of, you know, we expect that at least two, possibly three, maybe even four kids will make their debuts round one against the Sydney Swans," Clarkson said.
"So that's really exciting that the supporters and members of the club can see that there are some new kids coming through that may be the next generation of this footy club.
"We'll continue to play some kids and give them opportunities and get some game time and exposure at this level."
In a bid to get the season proper off on a good start, Clarkson believes his team has the goods to deliver an opening round victory against the Swans.
"Our preparation has been pretty good and we're just quietly confident that we can sneak under the guard of Sydney round one."
The optimism for 2005 does not stop with Clarkson. New captain Richard Vandenberg has guaranteed that each week, a committed Hawthorn outfit will take to the field.
"I think you're going to see, obviously I think we're a pretty well prepared side this year and I've got no doubt you're going to see a committed Hawthorn team on the park." Vandenberg said.
Embracing his new role as club captain, Vandenberg is learning the ropes of what it takes to be an effective leader, and has experienced how time consuming the prominent role can be.
"I suppose there is a lot of extra responsibilities around the club and it just eats into your time a little bit but apart from that everything has been really good."
Drawing positives from his appointment has been easy though, with strong support from players, supporters, and staff members.
"All the supporters have been fantastic and the boys have been great." Vandenburg said.
"I'm lucky with the leadership group that we've got and the coaching staff so it's been spot on."
