HAWTHORN full-back Stephen Gilham believes his side's defence has the depth and young talent to cover the likely early-season absence of star centre half-back Trent Croad.

While the Hawks hope Croad, who is recovering from a foot injury, doesn't miss too much of the 2009 season, Gilham said others would put their hand up to fill the big shoes left by one of the club's key on-field figures.

"We've just got to deal with that (Croad's injury) as best as we can and guys will get an opportunity to step up and go to the next level, hopefully," Gilham said.

"We drafted a few more [defenders] so hopefully they can progress well and they might get a crack.

"Guys like Ryan Schoenmakers and Jordan Lisle, particularly in the backline … I definitely think they will get their opportunity in the NAB Cup."

While Hawthorn's forwards, and in particular Lance "Buddy" Franklin, were winning plenty of accolades last season, the club's backline was also performing superbly.

In the biggest game of the year the Hawks restricted Geelong – the competition's highest-scoring team – to just 11 goals.

The hard-working right-footer joked he was happy for the team's "show-pony" forwards to continue to grab the headlines while the defensive end continued to knuckle down to its task.

"I think we like that," Gilham said of his backline brothers.

"The focus is up the ground and we just get the job done every week. Collectively, we've got a confidence with each other.

"Defence is a key part to our game and in winning games you've got to stop an opposition scoring. Most of the time our midfielders help us out as much as they can and the forwards even come down [to help] as well, so it's a total ground thing.

"But at the end of the day the buck stops with us and we've got to shut down their key goalkickers and that sort of thing and I think we've got the guys now who can do that."