The Hawks are set to regain experienced trio Shane Crawford, Campbell Brown and Ben Dixon for their Easter Monday clash with Melbourne at the MCG.
The trio was sorely missed during the team's season opening loss against the Brisbane Lions last Saturday night.
Football manager Mark Evans said the team was eager to the see the return of its seasoned campaigners, with Crawford named in the starting 18 and Brown and Dixon named on an extended bench.
Robert Campbell, Xavier Ellis, Jarryd Roughead, Michael Osborne and Ben McGlynn have also been named on the provisional interchange. Evans said Brown and Dixon were set to start.
"I would expect them to play, but obviously the game is Monday and we've still got another training session on Saturday before we really finalise the team, but it'd be fair to say they would both come back into the team," Evans told
hawthornfc.com.au.
"In our match against Brisbane we had three players that had played 100 games, so to be able to include Crawford, Dixon and Brown helps us enormously.
"Crawford and Brown come back after suspension for misdemeanours in the NAB Cup/Challenge and Dixon was held out of the team last week because of the good performance across the month of the pre-season by some of the other forwards."
Evans said Dixon had been "protected" during the pre-season, in order for him to be ready for the season proper. But he added that the veteran was also unlucky not to play in round one.
"Unfortunately, the cards didn't fall his way when it came to round one, but he'll strengthen our attack by coming back in and he will be another target up forward to kick to," Evans said.
Evans was confident the Hawks would bounce back strongly this round after a disappointing opener last weekend.
"We have to acknowledge that we didn't play well … but we'd be pretty unlikely to play like that again. After some really exciting and encouraging form across the pre-season, round one came as a bit of a shock to us," Evans said.
The Hawks have yet to make any changes.
THE TEAMS – HAWTHORN:B: Danny Jacobs, Trent Croad, Brent Guerra
HB: Brad Sewell, Stephen Gilham, Grant Birchall
C: Rick Ladson, Sam Mitchell, Chance Bateman
HF: Shane Crawford, Lance Franklin, Tim Clarke
F: Mark Williams. Tim Boyle, Clinton Young
FOLL: Simon Taylor, Luke Hodge, Jordan Lewis
I/C (from): Robert Campbell, Xavier Ellis, Campbell Brown, Ben Dixon, Jarryd Roughead, Michael Osborne, Ben McGlynn
IN: Dixon, Crawford, Brown
OUT: -
MELBOURNE:B: Clint Bartram, Nathan Carroll, Matthew Whelan
HB: Daniel Ward, Jared Rivers, Daniel Bell
C: Brent Moloney, James McDonald, Brad Green
HF: Cameron Bruce, Brad Miller, Russell Robertson
F: Mark Jamar, David Neitz, Aaron Davey
FOLL: Jeff White, Nathan Jones, Travis Johnstone
I/C (from): Matthew Bate, Adem Yze, Chris Johnson, Nathan Brown, Clint Bizzell, Simon Godfrey, Paul Wheatley
IN: Wheatley, Rivers, Brown, Bizzell, Godfrey
OUT: McLean (fractured foot), Holland
