The Hawks have recalled a quartet of premiership players for their Thursday night clash with Adelaide.
Grant Birchall returns for just his third game this year after a horrid run of injuries, and will be joined by experienced heads in Luke Hodge, Luke Breust and Ryan Schoenmakers.
GM-Football Operations Jason Burt believes the playing group will benefit from the experience and leadership brought by the Hawks’ returning stars.
“The four guys coming in have over 700 games of experience and will bring some great on-field leadership and direction to our young guys,” said Burt.
“Last week we fielded our youngest side in several years, but we think it’s really important to balance youth with experience in order to help players develop and find some consistency in our performance.”
Brendan Whitecross, Kade Stewart, James Cousins and Josh Gibson have made way, with GIbson expected to remain on the sidelines for 2-4 weeks with an adductor strain.
ROUND 14 TEAM
Adelaide v Hawthorn
Adelaide Oval
Thursday 22 June, 7.20pm
B: Taylor Duryea, Kaiden Brand, Blake Hardwick
HB: Grant Birchall, Ryan Burton, Daniel Howe
C: Isaac Smith, Tom Mitchell, Liam Shiels
HF: James Sicily, Jack Gunston, Ricky Henderson
F: Tim O’Brien, Jarryd Roughead, Luke Hodge
R: Ben McEvoy, Shaun Burgoyne, Luke Breust
INT: Billy Hartung, Will Langford, Paul Puopolo, Ryan Schoenmakers
EMER: Kurt Heatherley, Kade Stewart, James Cousins
Changes:
IN: Hodge, Birchall, Breust, Schoenmakers
OUT: Gibson (groin), Whitecross (omitted), Stewart (omitted), Cousins (omitted)
