Arrivals
Onfield: Jordan Lisle, Luke Lowden, Shane Savage, Ryan Schoenmakers, Liam Shiels,
Will Sierakowski (rookie), Riley Milne (rookie), Haydn Kiel (rookie), Luke Breust (rookie), Carl Peterson (rookie).
Off-field: John Barker (assistant coach), David Flood (development coach), Brendon Bolton (Box Hill coach)
Departures
Onfield: Tim Clarke (delisted), Shane Crawford (retired), Zac Dawson (delisted), Danny Jacobs (retired), Luke McEntee (delisted), Alex Grima (rookie - delisted), Hugh Sandilands (rookie - delisted).
Off field: Todd Viney (assistant coach), Barry Mitchell (Box Hill coach)
Pre-season training started: Wednesday, November 19
Medical room
Luke Hodge (shoulder): Expected to be ready for round one.
Trent Croad (foot): Aiming at a mid-season return.
Max Bailey (knee): On track with his recovery. Will not be ready for the start of the season though.
Beau Muston (knee): Recovering well and should be ready for pre-season.
Xavier Ellis (hip): Likely to miss NAB Cup but could return for round one.
Who's burning?
Hawthorn would not comment on training performances.
Pre-season training camps
The Hawks have already done a fair bit of travel since winning the flag. Its younger players ventured up to Northern Territory, while some of the more senior players spent a week in Coffs Harbor.
In February the club will travel to Tasmania for the Telstra AFL Community Camps.
Training resumes post-Christmas: January 5, mainly based at Waverley.
Pre-season training overview
“There’s so much improvement to come from the players at this club, we haven’t reached a peak. Certainly within the club we don’t feel like we’ve reached the level we want to attain.
“We had guys in the grand final side that have been in our system less than four years so it’s really exciting from our point of view that we have that much improvement still in the group.
“There’s no guarantee that that (improvement) equals continued success but it certainly gives us a real chance of sustained success if the players choose to continue to train in the way they have.”
– Head fitness coach Andrew Russell
What coach Alastair Clarkson says:
We are pretty much of the view that if we think we have reached our peak, then the rest of competition will pass us very quickly. We have got a fair amount still to learn, despite the fact we happened to be the best team in September.
I am pretty sure everyone acknowledged that we weren't the best team over the course of the whole season. So we have still got a fair bit of work to do to catch up to Geelong, who have been able to put together consistent performances regularly.
– Herald-Sun 8/12.
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More 2009 pre-season reports
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The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL.
