Training 2026 Off-Season & Preseason reports and discussion

[Hodgey 15]

Awesome updates guys.
Axeman who?

 

[Yardie]

Going to be a monster. And elite endurance.

Sides will regret passing on him.

Was an amazing draft by Sleepy. Initially traded up the order to get Nairn, when the midfielder fell through with our first pick he kept trading back picking up extras and then grabbed Nairn with that pick and used the Nairn pick for Schubert.

 

[Simon Crawshay]

Going to be a monster. And elite endurance.

Sides will regret passing on him.

The biggest set of mitts since Stewart "Buckets" Loewe!

Fair set of shoulders on the young lad as well.

Kind of reminds me when Buddy came to the club, he was very skinny but you could see the frame of the powerful man he would develop into (no pressure kid ).

 

[matey]

Shuey came 10th in the 2km time trial in the national combine results which is amazing for a kid at 198cm …. Dalton 1st and Nairne 4th. 3 of the top 10 saying a lot about what Sam is looking for to complement the game style.

Coming into the draft many believed that Shuey was the best big key forward so at pick 23 sleepy MM jumped out of his deep sleep! Once he matures with those feet/hands/shoulders will be a beast!

 

[SSSSSS]

I can see Wiz is adding more crap tattoos on his arm.

Like Libba and Dimma, every shit tattoo makes him better.

 

[SSSSSS]

Awesome updates guys.
Axeman who?

Axeman walked so the rest can run

 

[AlwaysHawks15]

Everytime I see Cooper in our colours my heart flutters- let's hope he feels at home!
(Let's also hope the bloke I'm looking at IS Cooper)

The fact he's down here and has now come down on more than a few occasions would suggest he's happy to play at either Brisbane or Hawthorn. Has enough connections at the club that he will be fine to leave he's high school mates in Brisbane if it comes to it.

 

[AlwaysHawks15]

Some rumours up here in Brisbane that Cooper is looking more likely to be at the Hawks. Not close to family or club ITK's, some outside the group type ITK's. Take that anyway you would like, just passing it on.

More likely to get games with us than on that list. Reckon that's been communicated to him too.

 

[Newmo89]

Brett Ratten Interview - Head of Coaching Performance and Development - Pre Season 2026

Talking Hawks · Episode

bit.ly

Brett Ratten

Brett Ratten

Age

54

Ht

184cm

Wt

88kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

22.4

5star

K

12.1

4star

HB

10.3

5star

M

2.9

3star

T

3.0

5star

No current season stats available

D

26.4

5star

K

13.8

5star

HB

12.6

5star

M

3.4

4star

T

1.6

4star

interview - Head of coaching performance and development

 

[Since 2001]

It’s not 6 months, it’s entirely dependent on what surgery is actually required

Some real Chicken Little stuff here.

Unfortunately looks like my information was nearly dead on.

 

[SJT76]

Thank you again to our track watchers. Appreciate any updates on how Lewis is going. Excited for him to get a good preseason

 

[hawkmang]

Awesome updates guys.
Axeman who?

We should name this thread after the Axeman, he walked to the rest of us could run

edit: just saw SSSSSS’s post but point still stands! (gmta)

 

[TylerDurden]

 

[VandoHawk]

Even though it isn't ideal, we are better placed than previous years.

CMac, Weddle, Watson and Butler have been spending significant minutes training through the middle. That enables greater familiarity with structures and ability to rotate, which was limited last year. Throwing a player into rotations as a Hail Mary is very different to having them prepared for the role.

We should be alright in the regular season given the strength of our other areas, although this is never a guarantee. Matching the best sides will require Ward or Mackenzie (ideally both) to take the next step in their development. We can't just rely on Newcombe being superman.

 

[peetoo]

Mitch is pretty positive but day (and indeed dear, Lewis ) missed most of 2025

 

[Mercy Seat]

Even though it isn't ideal, we are better placed than previous years.

CMac, Weddle, Watson and Butler have been spending significant minutes training through the middle. That enables greater familiarity with structures and ability to rotate, which was limited last year. Throwing a player into rotations as a Hail Mary is very different to having them prepared for the role.

We should be alright in the regular season given the strength of our other areas, although this is never a guarantee. Matching the best sides will require Ward or Mackenzie (ideally both) to take the next step in their development. We can't just rely on Newcombe being superman.

I’m not as concerned about creativity out of the middle. I think I those guys you’ve mentioned will step up and given how strong we are elsewhere on the field, we’ll be super competitive week to week.

The watch for me is our defensive work on transition, which falls to our mids a lot of the time. The games we lost fairly convincingly last season, our mids were outmonstered by big bodied midfields, particularly the likes of Geelong and Brisbane. Our boys struggled to stop the flow of play, and Worps was actually one of the few mids who could actually stem the bleeding better than most.

I hope this is something where those younger boys can really step up.

 

[Simon Crawshay]

I’m not as concerned about creativity out of the middle. I think I those guys you’ve mentioned will step up and given how strong we are elsewhere on the field, we’ll be super competitive week to week.

The watch for me is our defensive work on transition, which falls to our mids a lot of the time. The games we lost fairly convincingly last season, our mids were outmonstered by big bodied midfields, particularly the likes of Geelong and Brisbane. Our boys struggled to stop the flow of play, and Worps was actually one of the few mids who could actually stem the bleeding better than most.

I hope this is something where those younger boys can really step up.

It was something I observed in the Prelim loss to the Handbaggers as well.

Worps didn't have a great game by any stretch but with Newk being hard tagged he was the only mid who seemed to be able to match it physically with the Geelong mids in the middle.

When Worps was on the bench Geelong just seemingly waltzed it out of the middle at will. Was super frustrating to watch.

We all know Worps has his limitations but he was/is a legit AFL hard body and I think we might miss him more than we think (especially with Day missing half the season seemingly).

I'm not sure Frenchie, Ward, CMac, etc are that type of attack dog in the middle. It feels like Newk is in for another long year (luckily he is made of concrete!)

 

[tommyk72]

Even though it isn't ideal, we are better placed than previous years.

CMac, Weddle, Watson and Butler have been spending significant minutes training through the middle. That enables greater familiarity with structures and ability to rotate, which was limited last year. Throwing a player into rotations as a Hail Mary is very different to having them prepared for the role.

We should be alright in the regular season given the strength of our other areas, although this is never a guarantee. Matching the best sides will require Ward or Mackenzie (ideally both) to take the next step in their development. We can't just rely on Newcombe being superman.

I'm interested in seeing how the new approach - with various potential part timers - clicks. It's great to say that CMac, Frenchie, Weddle, etc. have been spending time training there, but the best laid plans never survive contact with the enemy. Until they've had time in the cauldron when the heat is on there's no way to see whether they can perform consistenly. Let's hope at least a couple are able to perform at the level Ward did last season. We'll need that evoluition to match last years performance.

 

[Beachy]

Watching the last game our mids got wacked because the sweeper instead of holding space was like a bee to the honey pot. As soon as Geelong got the ball they had options everywhere. Lack the discipline to hold space. Unfortunately worps made that mistake often. Our mids needs to roll their sleeves up and find balance with getting the rock and being aware of their opponent. Day hurts but cmac can really add and the progression of was and frenchie will be very interesting and pivotal to what our year looks like.

 

[ahhhhhh]

Watching the last game our mids got wacked because the sweeper instead of holding space was like a bee to the honey pot. As soon as Geelong got the ball they had options everywhere. Lack the discipline to hold space. Unfortunately worps made that mistake often. Our mids needs to roll their sleeves up and find balance with getting the rock and being aware of their opponent. Day hurts but cmac can really add and the progression of was and frenchie will be very interesting and pivotal to what our year looks like.

Agree. Worpel constantly made the mistake of getting sucked in. I think our midfield structure will be better without him. Nash in particular will shine this year.

 

[To the Hawk]

I'm interested in seeing how the new approach - with various potential part timers - clicks. It's great to say that CMac, Frenchie, Weddle, etc. have been spending time training there, but the best laid plans never survive contact with the enemy. Until they've had time in the cauldron when the heat is on there's no way to see whether they can perform consistenly. Let's hope at least a couple are able to perform at the level Ward did last season. We'll need that evoluition to match last years performance.

Perfectly said.

We have the coach to find a way, but you simply don't see premiership sides entering a season with so much of a reliance on 'part time/unproven mids'. It's going to be a big ask for us to finish top 4 now.

I'd say the 2 ruck setup might even be rolled out Rd 0. Using Reeves strength to give our work in progress midfield a better chance at centre bounce.

I'm adamant we can't play 6 talls (fwd/ruck) but, and we know Meek and Reeves have been also training fwd in match-sim. So one of Lewis, Dear or Chol would be unlucky here.

 

[matey]

You need your hard nuts/aggression/pressure/physicality when it’s hot in the kitchen but I’m not sure if we could play Worps, Nash and Butts all in the same midfield.

The midfield mix also needs to have class, skill, creativity and being unpredictable for the opposition. This will hopefully come with Ward/Frenchie/Croc/Weds/Wiz/Moore/Ginni.

I am 100% sure that Sam and the coaches are working day and night to ensure that we have a midfield that will play its role for the team.

 

[unitedhawk2]

As has been well articulated by several people in posts above. Our mids will undoubtedly need to step up but one other area I’d be expecting improvement, from a defensive perspective, is in our F50.

Too many times last year, opposing half-backs just ran it out without much pressure. Finn would probably help with this but I’m looking for some of our other small forwards to improve defensively as well.

 

[hfc70]

No Day, No Worpel , No Merrett ! Hope we scrape into the Top 10 some how

Hawks in for a world of hurt

 

[Simon Crawshay]

As has been well articulated by several people in posts above. Our mids will undoubtedly need to step up but one other area I’d be expecting improvement, from a defensive perspective, is in our F50.

Too many times last year, opposing half-backs just ran it out without much pressure. Finn would probably help with this but I’m looking for some of our other small forwards to improve defensively as well.

I agree quite a few opposition half backs had career best numbers against us last year, that can't be a coincidence.

Its very clear to anyone who watched the Hawks last year that our two biggest weaknesses were our ability to win the contested ball in the middle and restricting run off half back.

In some ways it's robbing Peter to pay Paul as we can't expect someone like Gunners to offer maniacal defensive pressure at his age whilst still kicking 70+ goals. but we definitely need a better balance between attack and defence from our forwards.

Our midfield mix we are basically going to just have to cross our fingers and hope for the best this year but we really should be able to improve our defensive intent in the forward 50 (that's mainly a mindset thing rather than a player thing).