THERE are no walk-up starts in the Hawthorn midfield this year, according to Sam Mitchell.

The veteran says the emerging  Mitch Hallahan, Alex Woodward and Will Langford are ready to take their place in a midfield as deep and talented as any in the competition and will be given every opportunity to press their claims for a place in the side for the season opener against the Brisbane Lions at Aurora Stadium on 22 March.

Hallahan has been in the system at Hawthorn for four years without playing a senior game, but did win last year's Liston Medal while playing for Box Hill. Woodward did not play at all in 2013 as he recovered from his second knee reconstruction in as many years.

Langford made his debut last season and played one senior game, against the Western Bulldogs in Launceston.

According to Mitchell, the trio started this pre-season on equal footing with the more established midfielders on the list.

"There will be opportunities for those guys, especially if they perform when they get their chances in the intraclub games and the NAB Challenge," he said.

"If they play well, it's their spot to be taken off them. That's our attitude. It's not like it's my spot and they've got to earn it. It's open to anybody and whoever plays the best footy will get it."

Mitchell said that Hallahan, Woodward and Langford had been among the most impressive trainers at the club so far this summer.

"They are setting high standards with their training and the way they're going about it and I think there will be spots for them, especially with the versatile way we set up and play.

The Hawks rotated up to 12 players through their on-ball arrangement most weeks last year. Brad Sewell played primarily in the centre, however fellow midfield staples such as Mitchell, Luke Hodge and Shaun Burgoyne spent significant periods at either end of the ground as the midfield baton was passed to the likes of Cyril Rioli, Isaac Smith, Luke Breust, Jonathan Simpkin, Bradley Hill, Paul Puopolo and Liam Shiels.

Having said that, Mitchell said he remains as hungry as ever and would not be relinquishing his spot in the midfield, or even the side, without a fight.

"Our perceived middle tier players need to take the next step to become top tier for when we move on. That's just evolution in the football club, but you don’t try and force it and get younger guys to push aside older guys just for the sake of it."

Hawthorn averaged 141 rotations per game last season and was among the heaviest rotating teams in the competition. Mitchell welcomed the introduction of the 120-interchange limit for the forthcoming season in the context that for some time there were fears a restriction of 80 per game would be legislated.

He said the Hawks would adjust accordingly.

"It will mean a small change to the way we go about things and a bit of trial and error at the start of the year.

"I'm not sure exactly how we will do things, but we have trained a bit differently to how we have in other years."

By virtue of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, the Hawks did not begin full training until the start of December and will enter the new season with barely three months of training under their belts.

Mitchell said that the shorter pre-season would not be a hindrance for Hawthorn.

"We're a mature list and we should be able to handle it," he said.

"We've done a lot of pre-seasons and we get up to that level pretty quickly. When you're younger it takes you six or seven weeks to get up to that level but not when you've played for a lot of years.

"After two weeks you're already at 95 per cent of your best and it then takes just another month to get to 100 per cent," he said.