DEVELOPING Ryan Schoenmakers into a 'swingman' is an important step to improve Hawthorn's versatility, says coach Alastair Clarkson.
Schoenmakers will make his long-awaited comeback from a knee reconstruction against St Kilda at the MCG on Saturday, his first game since suffering an ACL injury in round four last season.
The 195cm key position player has progressed steadily in four VFL games for Box Hill and has been named at centre half-forward for the Hawks – despite spending most of his 64-game career in defence.
“He played a lot of his junior football as a forward and he played a lot of his AFL career as a back,” Clarkson said on Friday.
“So it’s great that he’s had exposure to both areas of the ground.
"Where he actually settles, we're yet to actually determine and it will depend on match-ups with the opposition where we require him and certainly his own form.
"But we'd really like him to be able to swing from one end of the ground to the other and we haven't had that luxury with his injury over the past (year).
"I don’t think he's played a senior game with Brian Lake – so to have that luxury of being able to swing either one of those two forward or back will be a great thing for our club."
Clarkson also flagged the possibility reigning best and fairest Josh Gibson could spend time forward as the season wears on.
Gibson is likely to get first crack on Nick Riewoldt on Saturday, although Schoenmakers, Lake and Ben Stratton are other possible match-ups for the star forward.
The Saints skipper is the League's equal-leading goalkicker with 18 goals – and has booted bags of three, five and five goals in St Kilda's three wins this season.
Meanwhile, Hartung will become the fifth Hawk to make his debut this season in vice-captain Jordan Lewis' 200th game.
The Hawks' first-pick (No.24 overall) at last year's NAB AFL draft is blessed with elite endurance and speed and is likely to line up on a wing or at half-forward.
“He is a young player that has been at our club for less than six months now and he has played some good footy at Box Hill and has had a really good pre-season,” Clarkson said.
“So he will get an opportunity tomorrow, so that’s exciting for him and exciting for us.
“I think it’s our fifth debutant and then we have been able to play (Jonathan) Ceglar and also Will Langford, who played very little footy senior-wise last year. But they have played some senior footy for us too and then (Ben) McEvoy, too.
“So we are continuing to try and win games of footy as well and blood some of your young players that have been in our system for some time now and deserve and opportunity to play. That’s really pleasing for us.”
Veteran midfielder Brad Sewell is edging closer to a return from a hamstring issue, Clarkson confirmed.
“'Sewelly' is going well. He is on track to play some footy in about two weeks’ time,” Clarkson said.
"He is ready to go, but we just want to make sure that his conditioning is ready to go so that when he does play he gives himself the best chance of playing some good footy at Box Hill and then come back into our senior side.”
