STAR Hawthorn forward Jarryd Roughead is among the options coach Alastair Clarkson is considering to support ruckman Brent Renouf in Saturday's season opener against Melbourne.
Clarkson was keeping his cards close to his chest when quizzed on his ruck dilemma on Friday morning, with the Hawks' stocks in thin supply.
Renouf is the only specialist big man picked to play against the Demons and Clarkson said the 21-year-old would receive assistance from at least one teammate.
"It's very, very difficult to ruck 100 per cent of the game on your own, particularly when the opposition have got two big fellas in (Mark) Jamar and (Jake) Spencer," Clarkson said from Waverley.
"He'll do as best as he can for the majority of the game, and get some support from Roughy and others when he's not there."
Asked who else could pinch-hit in the ruck, Clarkson remained tight-lipped.
"We'll have to wait and see on Saturday, won't we?"
Also on Clarkson's mind is the ongoing fitness battles of Cyril Rioli (osteitis pubis) and high-profile recruit Shaun Burgoyne (hamstring).
Both will miss this game, and though Rioli may return next week, Burgoyne is likely to be sidelined for at least another fortnight.
Clarkson said last year's knee injury had restricted Burgoyne's fitness base leading into the pre-season, which may have led to his recent hamstring tear.
"Shaun, I think, was a little bit of a wake-up call for us," he said.
"We'd managed him pretty conservatively over the summer but the bottom line is he's done very little conditioning work on his body, at the real intense level, for the best part of 12 months.
"Maybe it's a signal to us that we need to pull him back a little bit and give him a mini pre-season in a sense.
"So we're yet to determine how long that will be, but I don't think he'll be available for the first two or three rounds of the season."
Rioli, whose training load was reduced in recent weeks, was close to selection with Clarkson hopeful of his progression from here.
"He's had a week-and-a-bit of full ball work," he said.
"We just thought he was a little bit underdone.
"He hadn't played [under] any game condition at all, so he'll have some sort of simulated session either today or tomorrow and another couple of good sessions next week, and hopefully be ready to go for the Cats game in round two."
Clarkson believes his squad is otherwise in good shape ahead of Saturday's match and is looking forward to seeing Jarrod Kayler-Thomson and Carl Peterson make their AFL debuts.
Melbourne, like Hawthorn, is also missing some key players through injury but Clarkson is not underestimating his opponent.
"We've got a fresh and hungry group of players ... we're pleased with the preparation of the guys that are going into the game and we'll go and give it our best shot," he said.
