Hawthorn forward Luke Breust says recruit Jonathon Patton is creating a lot of excitement around the club ahead of this season.

The former GWS number one draft pick joined the Hawks in last year's trade period and has been one of the highlights in the track up to this point in the pre-season. 

The make-up of the Hawks forwardline will be a point of interest ahead of Round 1 with key forward options Mitchell Lewis and Tim O’Brien, while the likes of Breust, Jack Gunston and Paul Puopolo will also play key roles.

Breust said he is fascinated to see how the Hawks balance their many forward options this season.

“It’s going to be a pretty interesting looking forward line this year and probably the most exciting thing from my point of view is how it’s going to shape up and what it’s going to look like and what the best combination is,” he told SEN Breakfast.

“Now we’ve got three pretty good key forwards there in Jon Patton, Tim O’Brien and Mitch Lewis who can all probably play together.

“I’m looking forward to getting to know how Patton leads and the things he does on the footy field and it makes it pretty easy and predictable to get to his feet and hopefully crumb off him pretty well.”

Breust said the additions of Patton and Sam Frost, coupled with the return of star midfielder Tom Mitchell was a massive boost for the Hawks.

“We saw in the back-end of last year when you get Chad Wingard up and running, Tom Scully up and running, Jaeger O’Meara playing well, a Brownlow Medallist in Tom Mitchell coming back and then you get Jon Patton as a key forward, I think Sam Frost will be important down back as a dour defender next to guys like Ben Stratton and it’s starting to look like a pretty good spine,” he said.

“Then we’ve got young guys like Mitchell Lewis and James Worpel and those sorts of guys who will really drive this group going into season 2020.”