AFTER missing a month through injury, young midfielder Jonathan O'Rourke is back on the park and stringing together some consistent performances at VFL level.
O’Rourke started the season in the senior side, playing the first three games at AFL level, but injured his hamstring playing for Box Hill Hawks a fortnight later.
Over the past three weeks, the 22-year-old has been building.
He’s averaged more than 21 disposals per game - in matches against Casey Scorpions, North Ballarat and Northern Blues - as he pushes for a return to senior ranks.
“The first game back I played limited game time, and the last two weeks I’ve got full games into me,” O’Rourke told hawthornfc.com.au.
“The body’s feeling good, so hopefully I can keep building on that each week, keep improving my football and go from there.
“I’ve been getting my hands on the footy which is always good… and doing the things I’ve been working on, so hopefully I can keep that up.”
O’Rourke was among the Hawks’ best on the weekend in a 36-point loss to the Blues, earning praise from Hawthorn development coach Chris Newman for his ability to win the ball around the stoppages.
“Jono was pretty important for us,” Newman said.
“He had five clearances and we weren’t getting first use (from our rucks), so for him to get that amount of clearances was really good. He had 16 pressure acts, took seven marks and had three tackles.
"He worked up and down the ground and worked pretty hard all day.”
The focus for O’Rourke is still getting that balance right between playing as an inside midfielder and also being damaging on the outside.
“That’s the aim, to have that good inside-outside balance,” he said.
“The last couple of weeks the conditions haven’t really helped too much with the outside game, and I’ve probably had to play a bit more inside with the wet conditions.
“I’m still working on getting that mixture.”
It’s another big game for Box Hill Hawks this week – against Geelong at Simonds Stadium – with a win important as the Hawks look to bounce back from two losses in their past three games.
“We came out of the blocks pretty strong (on the weekend) and played some good footy in the first quarter, but unfortunately we couldn’t keep it together. Northern Blues played well on the day – they were just too good for us,” he said.
“(Our position) could be better, but we’ve still won five games and we’ve got a couple more games before the bye. If we can go into the bye with a few more wins, it puts us in a pretty good position going into the back half of the year."
