HAWTHORN star Jack Gunston says his sore ankle is healing "pretty well" as he races against time to be fit for Friday night's preliminary final against Fremantle.
Gunston hurt his ankle late in the qualifying final loss to West Coast 10 days ago and missed the 74-point semi-final belting of Adelaide last weekend.
Although the Hawks spearhead failed to join his teammates on the training track on Tuesday morning, he's still a chance of facing the Dockers at Domain Stadium.
"I'm feeling a bit better and I definitely relished the week off and hopefully I can get up this week," Gunston told the Hawks' website.
"I'm confident in my mind. It's healing pretty well and it's healed a lot better over the last few days as well, so I'm hopeful that I'll play. I haven't really done too much running yet, so once I get that going I'm sure we'll be right.
"If everything goes well early on in the week, then I'm sure I'll make the trip over and just be ready to go and ready for a prelim, which is always exciting."
Gunston was the only senior player missing from Tuesday's training session, which started with some sharp handball drills under pressure with the focus on moving the ball into space from congestion.
Hawthorn trained on a narrower than usual field at Waverley, with the normally MCG-sized boundaries brought in about five metres in preparation for the thinner and longer proportions of Domain Stadium.
The squad practiced moving the ball close to the boundary line in the first 20 minutes of the session before media were asked to leave.
Hawthorn's other injury concern, veteran fullback Brian Lake, looked untroubled after picking up a stomach ailment in the win over the Crows.
Out-of-favour ruckman Jonathon Ceglar also hit the track after a bout of gastro ruled him out of Box Hill's VFL preliminary final triumph over Sandringham last Saturday.
It leaves Gunston – the Hawks' leading goalkicker this season with 53 majors – as the only worry.
But if Gunston fails to play, his teammate Josh Gibson said he was confident that the back-to-back premiers would still have enough firepower to overcome Fremantle's stingy defence
David Neitz puts the heat on Matt Spangher at training on Tuesday. Picture: Getty Images
The Hawks booted 17 goals in a crushing 72-point triumph over the Dockers in Launceston in round 15, and they had 10 individual goalkickers put the Crows to the sword last Friday night.
"It's our structure, we don't rely on one individual. We're the number one scoring side this year, so I think that shows that you've got to have multiple avenues to goal – which we've got," Gibson told AFL.com.au.
"If someone's not kicking goals, then someone else pops up and on the weekend it was Punky's (Luke Breust) turn.
"That's what makes our forward line so dangerous, that they can all jump up and kick goals, so obviously Jack's been a big part of that this year but if we were to go into the game without him we still feel we've got other avenues to score."
Meanwhile, Kurt Heatherley appeared to have a right hamstring concern that needed treatment at training on Tuesday ahead of Box Hill's VFL Grand Final against Williamstown on Sunday.
Brian Lake gives Grant Birchall a lift at training on Tuesday. Picture: Getty Images 
