Hawks star Jack Gunston says fans should "be excited by a lot of the younger guys" at the club. 

Amidst his recovery from back surgery, Gunston has spent the bulk of the summer to date watching training from the sidelines. 

This has meant box seat viewing of some of the Hawks youngsters - and the reigning Peter Crimmins Medallist has been excited by what he has seen.

"They've come straight in and impressed," Gunston said. 

"Denver (Grainger-Barras) and Connor Downie are two guys who've got ready-made bodies.

"I don't know whether we will see them in Round 1 necessarily but they're definitely going to be ready and putting their hands up throughout the year."

A look at the crew that is yet to debut

Gunston also remarked on the improvement in the club's newest time trial king Changkuoth Jiath.

"I like the look of CJ at the moment.

"He obviously won the time trial but it's everything else - his footy work, his level-headedness with ball in hand - he's looking really good."

With the younger portion of the squad returning to training a few weeks earlier than their older teammates, Gunston said the youngsters had set a standard in the way they were going about training.

"I've just noticed how fit a lot of the younger guys are - they had a great block pre-Christmas and now that their older guys are here they're starting to really push them along.

"The boys are doing a lot of competitive work, getting harder and tougher, and it's good to see.

"The Hawks fans should be excited of what we can produce this year."