Hawthorn ruckman Ben McEvoy says the club took advantage of a “unique opportunity” in the club’s first JLT Series hit-out against Brisbane on Sunday.
McEvoy was one of an extensive group of senior Hawks who sat out the pre-season opener, allowing the younger end of the list to take on some valuable experience.
“Because of the scheduling and how it worked, it allowed the old fellas like me to stay home and rest up for a bit,” the 29-year-old told RSN on Tuesday morning.
“It was the youngest side I’ve ever seen fielded at Hawthorn.
“It was a really unique opportunity for those blokes to get some exposure against what was a pretty solid Brisbane line-up.”
The Lions led the Hawks for the majority of the day, but the intensity of the Hawks demanded the best out of their Queensland rivals.
Freshly inducted into Hawthorn’s new-look leadership group for 2019, McEvoy said there were understandably a few errors in the side’s system, but he couldn’t have been more pleased with the effort.
“It didn’t go exactly as we would have liked, and I think we got ran over a bit by the experience in the second half.
“But it was excellent exposure and experience for those guys and there were some really positive signs.
“We probably stuffed up a few things structurally but you can teach that - they all had a crack which is the most important part.”
