HAWTHORN’S manager of football operations Mark Evans has expressed his delight at the return of two big names to the line-up for Friday night's clash against the Eagles.

Shane Crawford returns having not played since round eight due to knee tendonitis while Trent Croad is back in the team after missing two weeks due to a bruised hip.

“It’s very pleasing to be adding players back into the group,” Evans said.

“Across most of the year, when we’ve had players come back into the team, we’ve been losing other players so it’s good to be starting to consolidate the team. Shane and Trent coming into the team really strengthens us.”

Evans said Crawford has been impressive in his efforts to return to full fitness and admitted that the club was playing it safe in leaving Croad out of last week’s 22.

“Shane’s had a tremendous period of training over the last few weeks. He’s excited about playing again in his 297th game.

“Our approach over the past four or five weeks has been that we could have quite easily changed Shane’s training to get him back earlier but we felt that this was going to be the most beneficial regime for him in being able to play consistent football for the rest of the season.

“Trent was probably ready to go last week but we just played it a little cautious. It’s better for him to miss an extra week there rather than come back too early.”

The Hawks will welcome back even more big names after the split round with Chance Bateman (hamstring), Brad Sewell (shoulder), and Simon Taylor (gash to the knee) all set to return.

“We decided that rather than bring Chance back for one game prior to the week off, let’s take a more long term view and give him this week and next week off because of the split round, so he’ll be perfectly fine for the week after.

“Brad’s back in full training so we would expect that he would play after the split round as well and Simon Taylor should be available also. It’s looking good for us over the next two to three weeks to get back to a full depth squad.”

While Cameron Stokes is expected to return to action from his hamstring injury next week, Evans has said there are other Hawks who are impressing with the reserves.

“Brendan Whitecross has had two or three really good games in a row and has been on the emergency list for a couple of weeks now.

“Tim Walsh had a delayed start to the year because of a knee injury and that was his first VFL senior game. He’s a long way away from condition but found himself in his first senior game in among the best, which was terrific.

“Mitch Thorp also had a training block for the past three or four weeks where he didn’t play so it’s good to see him getting back into some good form.”