UNDER-FIRE Hawk Ty Vickery is set to play for Box Hill on Sunday at the end of a week he was arrested – but released without charge – as part of an investigation into extortion and threats.
Hawthorn named Vickery, 27, as an emergency for its match against Greater Western Sydney in Launceston on Saturday, but he did not travel with the team on Friday. Box Hill hosts Williamstown in the VFL.
Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson said it had been a "big week" for Vickery, but he was coping well.
"We can't really comment too much; it's a little bit like the umpires. You're not meant to speak about that stuff," Clarkson told reporters on Friday.
"But he's got the support of his teammates and his footy club and his family and friends, and that's all that's important at this point in time."
Clarkson said Vickery had cooperated with police and was trying to "live his life as normal as he possibly can" in the circumstances.
As part of the police investigation, Vickery's former Richmond teammate Jake King was also arrested, with King charged with extortion, making threats to kill, two counts of threatening to inflict serious injury and two counts of using a carriage service to harass.
"We've been really pleased with the manner in which he's (Vickery) cooperated and hopefully that will just play itself out over the course of the next couple of weeks," Clarkson said.
"He gets judged according to his performance and his performance has been quite good, but so have some of the guys in our forward line and ruck division … and we're winning games of footy.
"So it makes it a little bit tough for any player in our Box Hill side to get a guernsey."
Among those who made the trip to Tasmania were Grant Birchall, Jaeger O'Meara and emergency Harry Morrison, who is yet to make his AFL debut.
Birchall is dealing with swelling in his right knee, related to the posterior cruciate ligament injury he suffered against Melbourne in round seven that saw him miss five matches.
He was the sole change from last week's win over Collingwood – the club's second straight – with Kade Stewart replacing him.
Clarkson said the recovery period for Birchall ranged anywhere from a fortnight to his season being over.
But fellow defenders James Frawley (turf toe/foot) and Josh Gibson (groin) should play again in 2017. Ben Stratton (knee) was ruled out mid-week for the rest of the year.
O'Meara has played just four matches in his first season in brown and gold as he deals with his latest knee issue.
"(O'Meara)'s back training and we're anticipating he's going to do a rehab block over the next three or four weeks and get himself back in the side," Clarkson said.
"So we want him to be integrated into our side as much as we possibly can.
"He's come from another club, he's new to our place and we want him to learn our systems and the way we go about it as best he can."
The Giants are also dealing with a lengthy injury list that includes Toby Greene, Zac Williams, Steve Johnson, Stephen Coniglio, Brett Deledio and Ryan Griffen.
Clarkson said his emerging backline, including NAB AFL Rising Star nominees Ryan Burton and Blake Hardwick, as well as Kaiden Brand and James Sicily, still faced a stiff challenge.
Jeremy Cameron, Jonathon Patton, Rory Lobb and Devon Smith headline GWS's formidable attack.
"Out of every dark cloud there's a silver lining, and that silver lining for us is the emergence of some of these young players," Clarkson said.
"Many of them have been around our club for a period of time … but now they're getting their chance and have acquitted themselves really well.
"We've had a couple of really tough assignments over the last four or five weeks, and they've handled themselves really well on some really good players."
