Brown and gold was the theme of the day on Monday, with a handful of Hawks personnel joining SEN for Hawthorn’s Membership Day.

Up first was Sam Mitchell on Fireball with Kane Cornes and David King.

On the practice match against the Bulldogs

“A couple of guys will be a little bit managed. We play eight days after it in our Round 0 game against the Swans, so there’ll be a couple of guys managed for time but we'll start with a pretty strong line-up and try a couple of things as the game goes on.”

On the Full Sweat documentary

“It didn’t change a lot to be fair. In our world these days, our communication department is pretty big, and I think every club whether it’s social media or traditional media outlets, there’s a lot of interest in the game.

“We have cameras on us all the time, so usually they’re internal people that you maybe have a little bit more control over but we put our guys (documentary crew) in Hawks kits and they’ve been pretty much filming us all preseason.

“I’ve seen a few snippets of what they’ve produced and probably to me and to you guys it won’t be all that earth-shattering, but to people who haven’t spent time within the four walls of a footy club apparently, it’s very very interesting stuff so it’ll be good to show the way we go about things on the inside.”

On the cohesion of the new backline

“It’s a bit of a work in progress if I’m honest, it’d be great to have everything completely ironed out exactly before Round 0, but we’ve still got a bit of working through.

"Obviously, we had Tom Barrass’ wedding last week, so we haven’t seen him play in earnest against opposition just yet.

"Joshy Battle has fit in pretty seamlessly and the boys have enjoyed working with him and I think Tom’s upside is going to be significant, I think they’ll both get better and better, but Kade Simpson’s done a really good job at gelling them together and I’m sure as the season unfolds we’ll show more and more synergy in that area of the ground.”

Will Day then joined Mornings with Gerald Whateley.

On his 2025 pre-season

“Yeah really good, for a pleasant change. Been pretty uninterrupted for myself which is exciting, I haven’t had much of that throughout my career so I’m not taking it for granted and it makes it really exciting.”

On his target areas and forward strength

“Power is one thing that I’ve been pretty good at. But sitting down with Peter Burge, our High Performance Manager and identifying that I could turn into a weapon, we’ve worked on that a lot this preseason and trying to get a little bit more forward of the midfield as well, and having an impact forward as all our midfielders are trying to do as well.

“Lower body strength is something we’ve really honed in on and just in the gym doing everything I can, not so much upper body, cause I don’t want to get too top heavy but lower body strength has been something we’ve prioritised.

“I think I’m able to compete in the air and on the ground, so when I do go forward, I pride myself on being able to do both things and I feel like it can be a pretty dangerous match-up and hopefully we can get some connection with the other forwards and make it work.”

On missing the 2024 finals series

“I think it just adds a lot more hunger for me to get back there and help push the team to make finals again.

"It was pretty tough not being able to help on the field, I tried as much as I could to help off it with a little bit of coaching here and there but at the end of the day, there’s nothing the same as being out there to help.

"It was pretty tough to watch on but I was so proud of the boys, that first final especially and even the second one, we took it right to the line so hopefully it’s good momentum to bring into this year.

“I think it just shows that even though we had a great season and externally everyone’s really happy with us, we know that we weren’t good enough.

"Losing that game, we know that if we just do the same thing this upcoming season, we’re not going to get to where we want to get to so, I think that’s been good for us that we’re happy but we’re not content and we’ve really taken that into this pre-season and we’ve been really driven and just trying to get better every day we’re in there so it’s been a really good feel around the club.

"I think we’ve raised our own expectations as well which makes the outside noise not seem as important and we’re just doing our thing and we know from last year that the things we’ve been working on can hold up, especially in finals as well, so if we keep working at that and getting better ourselves then we’re on the right path.”

On what to expect in 2025

“I think adding Barrass and Battle was great for us to really solidify the defence, I have a lot of trust in that, it’s not even a back six, you can probably call it a back eight or nine now, so the faith we have in them to get the job done.

We’ve already talked about our midfield this year and we’re really confident in what we can do and our forward line is pretty exciting as well, you look at all the names up there and every one of them puts a smile on your face.

"I think internally we’re really excited but we know that it’s obviously gonna take a lot of work, every team now they’re not going to be blindsided, so to speak.

"I think last year we probably caught a few teams off guard, whereas this year I think other teams will be a lot more ready for us so that’ll have a challenge in itself, and all the external noise as well but we’re just looking to keep playing our game and we’re hoping that’ll stack up which we hope it does.”

ICYMI: HOW HAWKS ARE EMBRACING EXTRA PRESSURE

Then it was Dylan Moore on Afternoons with Dwayne Russell.

On the Hawks over summer

“I’m excited too, I think there’s a bit of unknown with us.

"We’ve played half a season of really good football and there’s a bit of unknown in our camp as well, it’s can we perform the way that we did in the back half of the year this year as well.

"But summer’s been good, we’re fit, we’re healthy and we’re all just keen now to get up to the SCG and play the Swans.”

On absorbing the pressure in 2025

“For sure, there’s going to be more heat on us but that’s why you play footy.

"I think the game now is very much mental, everyone’s got pretty similar programs, everyone’s fit, everyone’s strong, you speak to every club this time of the year and everyone’s probably saying the same thing that ‘the boys are flying’.

"So when we step onto the field now there’s a bit more of a mental game in it and we know that if we build up every game too high and we put too much pressure on ourselves that we won’t be able to perform, so we know that if we can get the mix between nerves and excitement then hopefully we can just showcase our weapons on the field.”

On the team's practice and Opening Round matches

“Coming out of the Geelong game we said we’ve got two weeks until Round 0 and the Doggies is eight days before Opening Round so we’re going to have to take it real serious.

"It’s just like it’s going to be up in Sydney, we’re going to have to bring the heat early and hopefully we can carry on the form from Thursday night into next week.”

 “It’s exciting, nerves are already kicking in a little bit, just can’t wait to get up there.

"They’re obviously a great young side as well, grand final last year, we know they’re going to be in good form early, new coach, they’re all going to want to perform up there on their home ground like they did last year in Round 0, so we know the pressure’s going to be on, let’s just hope we can handle it.” 

Followed by James Sicily on The Run Home with Andy Maher and Andrew Gaze.

On the hype and challenge in 2025

“I think we’re all pretty excited about being back on broadway, so to speak, and the pressures of that and the expectations, we’re ready to go and get the season started, it’s only two weeks away.

"We’ve trained hard, trained against each other and pretty keen to get into the real stuff.

“I think one thing that’s grown a lot is just the trust in one another and now we’ve got two new guys down back who are incredible players in their own right to add to what we already had and it does feel like the team is very well rounded.

"We all believe we’re very well coached, we’re always well prepared and we believe that if we play our best footy we’re a good chance to win on that day, but that’s AFL footy, being at the top of your game for as long as you can can be hard, but we’re excited by the challenge and hoping to go better than we did last year.”

On Hawthorn’s versatility

“I think majority will be down back (on his position).

"I too am quite excited by the versatility in our side, not just myself but knowing that there’s Josh Weddle, Blake Hardwick, CJ, like a lot of guys who if things aren’t happening the way we’d like out there then we can pull a bunch of different levers to try to change the game.

"I expect to go forward at stages, whether that’s to start the game as a forward or during the quarter or at half-time, like being able to change things in-game and have the flexibility to do so is exciting and something that not all teams have.”

On the license to take the game on

“It might not look like it perhaps when you’re watching but there are a lot of x’s and o’s and processes and the way we do things, there is some method to the madness, it’s not just instinctual go-with-the-flow sort of set-up.

"Mitch (Sam Mitchell) is really big on expressing yourself when you’re feeling really confident and when you think the time is right to take the game on or if you’re just really feeling something, just go for it and there are things in place to try and fix it if it stuffs up and not being afraid of making mistakes and just keep going.

“Mitch backs me in to hit what I see and a lot of us have got that license to take the game on, we’ve got some beautiful kicks in our team not just myself.

"We’ve got Karl (Amon), Blake Hardwick is a great kick of the footy, Cam Mackenzie, Jai Newcombe, Massimo (D’Ambrosio), we’ve got some guys that can seriously use the ball and Mitch backs us in to take it on.”

And last but not least, Jai Newcombe featured on Sportsday with Kane Cornes and Gerard Healy.

On what he has worked on this pre-season

"It's been a lot of things, I'm still trying to get better all the time.

"There's a lot of quality mids in the comp that are very agile and are hitting the scoreboard which is a big thing to be a damaging midfielder in the comp at the moment.

"I'm trying to work those things into my game a little bit more and trying to get a bit faster as well.

"A big body and speed is handy to have sometimes so those would probably be the main things."

On playing in Tasmania 

"Obviously we've been going down there for a long time.

"I guess just the comfortability that we have going down there would be the major benefitting thing for us.

"Everyone feels comfortable down there, it's a pretty crusiy set-up.

"It's a very short trip, a very easy trip and something we always enjoy.

"The ground is in amazing condition and I personally love playing there so it's nice to have a little competitive advantage."

It’s not too late to sign up as a 2025 Hawthorn member, check out the SEN Membership Day deals HERE!