HAWTHORN will consider sticking with youth in the final three rounds and warehousing its returning premiership heroes after a 29-point loss against Richmond that all but ended the club's finals charge.
The Hawks have been waiting on the return of defenders Grant Birchall (knee), James Frawley (toe) and Josh Gibson (groin) as well as star forward Cyril Rioli (knee), but time is running out for the group.
With their finals chances now remote at 8-10 with one draw, coach Alastair Clarkson said the Hawks could focus on getting more game time into their youngsters and preparing their veterans for next pre-season.
"We're not expecting too many back to be fair," the coach said on Sunday night.
"Birchall, (Ben) Stratton, Rioli, Frawley, Gibson, they're probably all unlikely for the next week or two … but we're going to run out of time with three games left.
"You've got to decide whether it's worthwhile bringing them back via Box Hill (and) Box Hill are top of the ladder and going really well, so it's probably going to destabilise them.
"It might be best to just not worry about bringing them back and keep going with the younger fellas and see where that takes us over the next three weeks."
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Clarkson said getting senior players fit and available for captain Luke Hodge's farewell game in round 23 was unlikely to factor prominently in the club's thoughts.
The Hawks are hopeful midfield recruit Jaeger O'Meara will play before the end of the season and potentially as soon as next week after a horror run with knee injuries.
"That's probably unlikely to be at senior level, but we're just really eager for him to get back and play some footy then have a bit of a rest and get himself going for pre-season," Clarkson said.
"The first goal is just to get him back and available to play a game of footy and from his and our point of view, that's just rolling around and getting conditioned to play.
"Jaeger will hopefully play in the next week or two, maybe even next week so that'll be encouraging for us."
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Hawthorn lacked the "polish and hardness" needed to compete with Richmond on Sunday, with missed handballs and fumbles costing the team repeatedly on turnover.
Clarkson said his team dropped off in contested ball (148-137) after a good six weeks and were punished by their third-placed opponents.
The coach said there were still 10 clubs that could win this year's premiership in an "incredibly even season", including the Tigers.
"They're doing everything right at the present time but you need to be doing everything right in September," Clarkson said.
"That's what the Bulldogs were able to do. Who knows who's going to be able to do it this year, but I honestly think that any of the top 10 as it sits at the moment [could win it].
"We've probably shot ourselves in the footy from today's result … but dare I say it if we'd have been able to sneak in there we could have given it a shake as well."
