Max Bailey injured his wrist on the eve of Round 1, opening the door for rookie-listed ruckman Broc McCauley to make his debut for the Club.
He too, however, was struck down by injury, first battling an illness that kept him out of the Round 3 win over Adelaide before sustaining an elbow injury in a VFL practice match. His last match, the Round 5 loss to Sydney at Aurora Stadium.
Since then, Hale and Roughead have forged a dynamic partnership that combines competitive ruck work with forward dominance.
Against the Giants on Sunday, Greater Western Sydney ruckman Jonathan Giles dominated the hit outs in the opening term, palming five taps to the advantage of a teammate.
That lead to the Giants smashing the Hawks at the stoppages, winning 13 clearances to five in the opening quarter.
After quarter time, however, Hale and Roughead bounced back to finish the match with 10 hit outs to advantage to the Giants’ nine.
The ability to nullify Giles and palm the ball to a teammate at the same time helped the Hawks dominate the clearances after quarter time (33-14) and subsequently provide the forwards with 75 inside 50s for the match.
Roughead says that the connection between himself, Hale and the midfield group has improved with continuity of matches
“The connection worked between the midfielders and Haley and myself,” he said.
“We’ve only played about 20 games together, and after that you become really close out on the field.
“It makes the midfielders’ job a lot easier if we’re hitting it to them.”
With media commentators identifying the Hawthorn ruck stocks as a weakness, Roughead doesn’t buy into that assumption.
Instead, he has confidence in the role he and Hale are performing for the team.
“Some teams are going to probably look at it and think that it possibly is a weakness,” he said.
“(But) with us, if we’re doing what we’re doing, and on Sunday it was hitting it to our advantage, then that goes a long way towards getting more inside 50s and hopefully more scores on the board.”
While both Hale and Roughead are predominantly forwards, that makes their performance in the ruck this season even more impressive.
Spending more time on the ball hasn’t affected their output inside 50 either, as both players have the ability to impact a game as the resting ruckman in the forward line.
Against the Giants on Sunday, Roughead booted six goals to be the dominant forward on the field, while Hale booted two goals in a minute to be a towering force up forward.
Between them, they have contributed 42 goals in 14 matches.
That flexibility is important according to Roughead.
“I think the good thing is that you’ve got the flexibility to do that (go forward) and especially with the sub rule these days you can’t just have a genuine ruckman,” he said.
“You’ve got to be able to play in numerous positions.
“I suppose that’s what Haley and I bring to the table for the side and it’s really good for us personally to be able to do that as well.”
Kate Salemme is a member of Hawthorn Football Club’s Digital media team reporting exclusively for hawthornfc.com.au from the Ricoh Centre.
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