HAWTHORN sharpshooter Luke Breust hopes he can continue his form in front of goal when the Hawks take on the Sydney Swans on Saturday night.
Breust leads the Hawks’ goalkicking table in 2015 – with 34 goals from 14 matches – and has been on fire in the past fortnight with a combined seven goals straight against Collingwood and Fremantle.
The 24-year-old, who hails from Temora in New South Wales, will return to his home state with plenty of confidence this week - having kicked 11.0 in the Hawks' past four matches.
“It was a bit of a scratchy start to the year and I guess I probably followed the form of the team really – a bit up and down each week,” Breust said.
“I feel over the last month or so that I’ve started to string some consistent games together… and am kicking a few goals here and there.
“Hopefully I can continue to build the form I’ve had over the past month, build on that throughout the rest of the year and into finals as well.”
Breust was one of three Hawks to kick more than 50 goals last season, and is on track to match or better that effort this season if he continues at his current rate of 2.4 goals per game.
The Hawks forward line has been without spearhead Jarryd Roughead for the past two weeks, but Breust – among others – have stood up in his absence.
He kicked three goals against the Magpies in Round 14, before going one goal better against the Dockers on the weekend.
A key to the Hawks’ scoring power this season has been a variety of contributors in front of goal, and the past two weeks have been no different.
“Obviously (having) Roughy out over the last couple of weeks has been a big out for us, but I think we’ve coped pretty well,” Breust said.
“(Ryan) Schoenmakers, (Ben) McEvoy… and (David) Hale presented a great contest on the weekend for us, and then you’ve got guys like (Jack) Gunston, (Cyril) Rioli, myself and (Paul) Puopolo sort of at their feet or leading up.
“I think we’ve got a great mix down there at the moment and we’re dangerous for any team to come up against.”
The Hawks are leading the competition for points scored this year – averaging almost 110 points per game – and had ten different goal-scorers against the ladder-leading Dockers.
Outside of football, Breust has also been busy – he’s more than halfway through a Bachelor of Commerce degree and doing work experience at the Melbourne office of KPMG.
But his focus come this Saturday will be on the Swans, who he says are right up there with the Dockers, labelling them “the benchmark of the competition so far this season”.
“They got us in Round 8, so we’ll have to look at a few things this week and try to exploit them and get one back on them,” Breust said.
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