HAWTHORN expects midfielders Jordan Lewis and Clinton Young to be fit for Saturday’s preliminary final against Adelaide at the MCG.
Lewis (hamstring) and Young (calf) both missed the qualifying final against Collingwood but after enjoying a break over semi-final weekend, should return to bolster the Hawks.
General Manager - Football Operations, Mark Evans says both players have trained well over the break and have ramped up preparations for the match this week.
“Both trained really well, this week particularly, but also in the back end of last week they were going quite well,” he said.
“You’d expect that their hands will be nice and high when it comes to selection tomorrow (Thursday).”
In further good news for the Club, defender Brent Guerra continues to impress in his rehabilitation from what many are speculating to be a season-ending hamstring injury.
Guerra tore his hamstring against the Eagles in the final round of the home-and-away season, and subsequently finds himself in a race against the clock to play a role in the Hawks’ 2012 finals campaign.
The defender began light running duties last week and has again stepped up his training regimen as he continues to aim to defy the odds and return for the Hawks this season.
Evans remains optimistic of the 30-year-old’s chances of a return should the Hawks progress into the final week of the finals and participate on the last Saturday in September.
“Brent’s increased his intensity of his running and is starting to do drills beyond that as well,” he said.
“He’s progressing okay at this stage, but he’s still got a little bit of a way to go.”
The Hawks’ footy managers said the Club used the week off to recuperate after the bruising qualifying final win over Collingwood in Week 1 of the AFL finals.
Evans said recovery was on the menu early in the week as players aimed to use the week off to freshen up ahead of the penultimate round of finals.
On Friday, however, Coach Alastair Clarkson and his brains trust ramped up preparations for the preliminary final with a solid session on the track.
The high intensity training continued into this week, but Evans admitted the load will be lightened as Saturday approaches.
“The first part of last week was almost like an extended recovery session,” he said.
“We built up the intensity as we went through last week and kept that high at the start of this week.
“Obviously as you head towards the game, we’ll ease off a little bit from there.”
Kate Salemme is a member of Hawthorn Football Club's Digital Media team reporting exclusively for hawthornfc.com.au from the Ricoh Centre.
Injury list
Andrew Boseley (shoulder) - season
Stephen Gilham (quad) - TBC
Brent Guerra (hamstring) - TBC
Brendan Whitecross (knee) - season
Luke Lowden (wrist) - season
Michael Osborne (knee) - season
Alex Woodward (knee) - season
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