HAWTHORN will welcome back veteran Luke Breust and defender Changkuoth Jiath for Saturday's clash against Melbourne at the MCG, while prized pick Cam Mackenzie is in the frame to return after a dominant fortnight for Box Hill. 

The Hawks opted to leave Breust and Jiath in Melbourne last weekend rather than send the star pair to Perth for the game against Fremantle, following challenges with their bodies across the first seven rounds.

After struggling to train across the past month – and rarely doing much in the first session of the week – the pair completed the full session at Waverley Park on Tuesday and are ready to go in the annual Emergency Services Match.

"Both of those guys certainly looked better today. Normally I do these (press conferences) on a Thursday and you have a much better idea later in the week," Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell said on Tuesday afternoon.

"They haven't been able to train up until Thursday or Friday for the last three or four weeks for those guys. They were both bouncing around today. 

"Being able to get two training sessions in in a week is really important, particularly for 'CJ' as a younger player. Luke can get away with one for a bit longer. They will both come into the side and give us a bit of vibrancy that we need."

After making his debut against Essendon in round one and playing the first six games of his first season in the AFL, Mackenzie was dropped ahead of round seven and has spent the past two weeks building his case for a recall in the VFL. 

The 2022 No.7 pick followed up a 30-possession haul against the Casey Demons in Wonthaggi with 30 more touches, eight tackles and a goal against the Northern Bullants at Preston City Oval on Saturday. 

"When you have a guy like Cam Mackenzie – who we think is going to be a long-term player for us, he has had a fantastic start to his career already – there is two ways to handle that as an early draft pick who gets dropped: one is to go into your shell and feel embarrassed and not be able to handle that situation, the other is to go back two weeks in a row now and play AFL standard football in the VFL," Mitchell said.  

"That's quite a difficult thing to do. He got tagged in his second game of VFL footy, so that's a fantastic feather in his cap. What we do with selection coming up is unknown yet, but he is certainly in the bracket."

After losing three of their first four games by 59 points or more, Hawthorn appeared to have made inroads across the three previous rounds, falling just short to Greater Western Sydney (two points) in Gather Round and Adelaide (three points) a week later, before leading the Western Bulldogs at half-time in Marcus Bontempelli's 200th game and then fading late. 

But Saturday night's 69-point loss to Fremantle at Optus Stadium was a setback on the club's progress, given the Dockers had won only two of their first seven games to start 2023 and have been one of the most disappointing sides thus far. 

Mitchell said the 1-7 Hawks were given a reminder of where they are at in Western Australia and need to find ways to capitalise on significant improvements in areas like clearance – Hawthorn has risen from 18th in 2022 to fifth in 2023 for clearances per game differential – if they are going to convert more winning opportunities into four points this winter. 

"We definitely took a step backwards on the weekend, really disappointed with the performance. We haven't been able to get over the line in some close games. It was a bit of a relapse as far as our third quarters. We've just done our review and we start to look forward towards Melbourne now," he said.

"Up until this week I haven't questioned it (the morale) in the slightest. The group has been fantastic. The playing group has been so resilient and optimistic about the future. I think it's really obvious where we've fallen down. Where we have done our reviews and scouted our opposition, it is really obvious where we have fallen down.

"We were in large periods of the game on the weekend and should have been much closer going into half-time. That has been a bit of a story for us. We know if we can finish our work, if we can change a couple of things, we can improve some parts of our gameplan and that will improve us and that will give great hope to our players. We've got such a young group, there is such a vibrancy and enthusiasm about them. The vast majority of them get carried along with the youthful exuberance."

In the wake of the booing directed towards two-time premiership Hawk and current Sydney champion Lance Franklin on Sunday, Mitchell said there is room for booing in the game but it needs to be directed in the right manner, not towards an all-time great for no reason.   

"I won't get into it specifically about Collingwood, but I thought they handled it well. I think Tom Stewart has said the best of what I've heard about it. He mentioned that he might get booed this week because he did something against that team," he said. 

"There is a part of me that people love sport, they go to the game and they are passionate and there is a passion you don't want to take away from supporters, but then I don't understand why you would boo Buddy Franklin. He has been a champion of the game. He has kicked 1,000 goals and brought some of the great moments to our sport over such a long period. 

"I thought Collingwood as a club handled the statement well and certainly from a Hawthorn perspective I would hope that we are not going to be heading down that path. For the Hawthorn fans out there, I would prefer that we didn't boo, please."