Hawthorn midfielder Josh Ward has praised the team’s energy levels as the Hawks’ first-to-fourth-year players took to the field at the Kennedy Community Centre for the first time (officially). 

Speaking to the media on Hawthorn’s first day of the 2026 pre-season, the 22-year-old highlighted the group’s desire to improve on this year’s preliminary final finish, outlining “mental skills” as a focus for the side this pre-season. 

We summarised the key points from his media conference below. 

On the day one vibes 

“Everyone’s got a lot of energy coming back, especially being at this new place, this new deck and new facility, it’s really exciting. I definitely felt that today from everyone. The footy was zipping around, it was good.”

On training at the Kennedy Community Centre

“It definitely feels special to be here. It just feels great to come into work, and there’s a nice energy around the place. But we’d train anywhere, we just enjoy being around each other and being back playing footy, which is good.”

On his personal form

“I had a bit to build off last year, but I still feel like I have a long way to go as a player. I think you never feel completely comfortable in the AFL, and I’m definitely taking that mindset that I’ve got a lot to prove and a lot to get better at this year. Being able to contribute and play my role last year gives me some confidence going into this year, but like I said, we’re back to square one now, and there’s a lot of room for improvement.”

On improving ahead of 2026 

“It was a pretty ugly way to go out as a team and for me personally, so I’ve been thinking about that a fair bit when I’m in the middle of those running sessions when it’s getting hard. That’s why you do it, to perform when it matters. We did that in the first two finals and didn’t do that in the last one. We know we’re not good enough yet, and we’ve got a lot to improve on and work on for us as a team, and me personally as well.”

On the focuses for pre-season

“We spoke about our mental skills this morning and being able to perform and do our job and play our role under pressure, something we’ve worked on a lot over the past few years. I think we’ve seen evidence that we have improved on that, but again, like we saw in the prelim, there are times we need to be better as well. Burgey (High Performance Manager, Peter Burge) said there’ll be times when we’ll be challenged in different ways over the pre-season, so we’ll try to build on that.”

Watch Josh Ward’s full press conference below