Hawthorn’s ‘young brigade’ and a senior duo are emerging as the standouts on the track early this pre-season, says High Performance Manager Peter Burge.

Burge’s comments come as the playing group returned to training last week following a three-week break during December and January.

2024 PRE-SEASON INJURY UPDATE

Burge highlighted the impressive work of several second-year Hawks including Cam Mackenzie, Bailey Macdonald and Henry Hustwaite, off the back of their debut seasons last year.

“They’ve all come back and improved significantly in their aerobic measures, but they’ve also been working at their speed and power as well,” Burge said.

“To have improvements in both areas is really significant as generally some are stronger in one than the other.

“Then out of our more senior players, Jarman Impey is in fantastic shape.

“I just love the way he goes about it, he’s got a great work ethic, he’s a leader of the club and sets an amazing example for everyone else.

“Jack Scrimshaw is also having his best preparation this year – he has improved in each running session we’ve done and produced personal bests which has been pleasing to see.”

Burge also recognised the pre-season work of the club’s fresh faces including recruits Jack Ginnivan, Mabior Chol, Massimo D'Ambrosio and draftees Nick Watson, Bodie Ryan, Will McCabe and Calsher Dear who all arrived late last year. 

“We’ve got some new players at the club and that is really exciting, and they are settling in really well,” he added.

“I’ve been really impressed with all those guys, all of them bring something different and it’s also interesting to talk to them about their experiences.

“I’ve really enjoyed watching them train and seeing their intensity at training in particular.”

With an intraclub game and two practice matches scheduled in for next month, Burge said training loads will continue to increase as the playing group prepares to return to match play.

“The pre-Christmas period was intense and we didn’t waste any time when we got back,” Burge said.

“We obviously recognise there are some areas we need to work on and get better at, we've got a young group of players, and we need to get the work into them.

“Now post-Christmas it’s really about building our football in particular and consolidating what we did pre-Christmas.

“Sessions become more intense and longer, but we still have to maintain and work hard at our developments and elements of our conditioning as well."

 Hear the full pre-season update from Burge below.