HAWTHORN ruckman David Hale spoke to the media about a number of topics on Monday.
Here's what he had to say about...
The Hawks' confidence
“I’d say the confidence of the group is pretty high, obviously the last two weeks (it) has been pretty good football that we’ve played.
“We’ve strung seven together now, so the guys are on a good run and confident I’m sure that when we come up against anyone we can knock them off.”
The past two weeks…
“I guess the margins in the end were a bit more than we probably thought.
“I think a lot of the stats were pretty even (against Sydney), so I think it was just more of our efficiency going forward that probably made the margin as big as it was.
“We know when we face those two (Fremantle and Sydney) probably later on in the year, it will probably be closer.”
The Hawks' efficiency
“In terms of going inside 50 and scoring goals, I think we had 52 for 23 goals, so that’s probably the efficiency they’re (coaching staff) probably after… but that’s obviously not going to happen every week.”
Competition for ruck spots
“That just comes down to selection table and what they think the best mix it.
“Week in, week out that could change, depending on opposition as well – Big Boy (Ben McEvoy) came back last week against (Aaron) Sandilands and did well, and did well again on the weekend… and Jon’s (Ceglar) been playing well in the 2s.
“When you’ve got three ruckmen that can do the job and have all got experience at that level, it comes down to team balance.”
Jarryd Roughead’s return...
“Eating soup for two weeks probably isn’t ideal, but it just shows the amount of training he did in that time kept him in good nick.
“A bit of the delivery he got as well was pretty nice, so I’m sure he was happy to be out there and hopefully he can just build from there.”
