ISAAC Smith is confident Hawthorn still has plenty of room to improve, as it ramps up its preparation for 2016.
The Hawks have resumed pre-season training following the Christmas break, with the triple-premiership midfielder noting a fit and focused squad.
“At the moment it’s all about training hard and getting in good condition,” Smith told media at the club’s open training session on Wednesday morning.
“I think the best thing is that we’ve got a heap of guys up there running good times now, which means we’re all in good condition and everyone’s taking it seriously in the off-season.”
While the Hawks lost a number of experienced stars after their 2015 premiership – including retired duo Brian Lake and David Hale, and the departed Matt Suckling – Smith believes the Hawks have plenty of talented youngsters ready to step up.
He said apprenticeships at VFL level with Box Hill Hawks – who have played in the last three grand finals – meant a number of young Hawks could be pushing for senior selection.
“We’ve got a lot of young guys that have probably got 40 or 50 games into them there (at Box Hill) and a lot of them have potential,” Smith said.
“Then you’ve got guys like Billy Hartung, Daniel Howe and a few other guys that have played regular senior games.”
Smith said ruckman Jon Ceglar, who played 14 games last season, “probably comes straight in” to replace Hale, while the likes of Matt Spangher, Angus Litherland, Kaiden Brand and Kurt Heatherley will no doubt be vying for Lake’s defensive post.
But it’s improvement across the board that the Hawks will be looking for, ahead of the NAB Challenge and season opener against Geelong Cats on Easter Monday.
“We’ve got guys that have been waiting in the wings that have got a lot of potential, but we’re just going to have to wait and see and hopefully they can step up,” Smith said.
“There’s a lot of room for improvement – not just in those guys, but in the guys that have been playing, so hopefully we can just step up and perform again.”
