COACH Alastair Clarkson says there’s a lot at stake for Hawthorn in the second half of the year, including making an impact in Shaun Burgoyne’s 400th AFL game this weekend.
The 17th-placed Hawks are enjoying a lift in form, having won two of their past three games, but face a stern test against Port Adelaide on Saturday.
“Our first half of the year was that poor that it’s probably going to mean that we’re disqualified from the opportunity to play finals this year,” Clarkson said.
“But what we do in the second half of the year sets us up enormously for getting ourselves back up the ladder next year and beyond.
“So there’s a lot at stake for us. It seems a silly thing to say given that we can’t make finals this year but there’s a lot we can get out of this year.
“… (Port Adelaide are) a top-four side who’ve got great aspirations to try and win a flag and we want to test ourselves to see whether our system stacks up against one of the better sides in the competition.”
Clarkson said the Hawks were keen to focus on beating the Power club rather than necessarily doing it for the veteran, who didn’t want Saturday night’s game at the MCG – where he becomes just the fifth player to the 400-game milestone – to “be about him”.
Burgoyne, 38, joined the Hawks in the 2010 trade period from Port when he was carrying a potentially career-threatening knee injury.
Clarkson said Burgoyne had acknowledged if he’d attempted to continue to be a midfield star, his career would be “finished in two or three years” and had changed his mindset accordingly.
“To his credit, he was able to suppress his ego and just say ‘I just need to play a role – I’ll let the accolades and that sort of stuff go to some of the others in the team and I’ll just play wherever the coach and the club needs me to play,'” Clarkson said.
“…That’s the importance of his role to our footy club: This guy … despite his star status in the game had the humility to say ‘I’ll just be a role player here and help the club be successful as they can be.'”
Meanwhile, the Hawks are sweating on young gun Will Day, who had an “impingement” of the ankle he had surgery on earlier this year in a contest against the Giants.
“We don’t know if he’s going to be out for one week or … six but it’ll be determined by how it settles,” Clarkson said.
Forward Mitch Lewis won’t return from his concussion – suffered in a boxing session gone awry in early June – this week, but Clarkson expects him to play next week.
