Hawthorn rocked by double blow as Sam Frost ruled out for rest of AFL finals campaign

Hawthorn defender Sam Frost and star midfielder Will Day are both set to miss Friday night's semi-final against Port Adelaide in a cruel blow to the Hawks' AFL flag bid. Frost has been ruled out for the rest of the season after picking up a foot injury in the win against the Western Bulldogs. While Day is expected to miss the Port clash after again failing to overcome a collarbone injury he picked up in Round 23.

On Friday, Frost played a pivotal role in curbing the Bulldogs' dangerous forwards in the 37-point elimination final win at the MCG. But the 31-year-old was seen hobbling from the field late in the last quarter, with scans revealing bone stress in his foot in a massive blow for the youthful Hawks outfit.

"Unfortunately, the scans have confirmed that Sam has a bone stress injury in his foot, and given his specific injury he will not be able to take any further part in our 2024 finals campaign," Hawks doctor Liam West said on Monday. "Sam will spend the next period offloading in a moon boot whilst we continue to assess him to determine a more accurate recovery timeline."

Day was originally set to return for the Bulldogs game he hasn't healed as quickly as hoped and is now expected to also miss the match against Port Adelaide. While fellow midfielder Cam Mackenzie is also in doubt after being ruled out of taking on the Bulldogs after hurting his hamstring at training.

Sam Frost believes Hawthorn can win the flag

But despite the injury blows, the elimination-final blitzing of the Western Bulldogs has given Frost belief that the brash Hawks can go all the way. The 37-point was the latest brilliant chapter in an extraordinary resurgence from a 0-5 start to the season.

"We don't want to get ahead of ourselves, there's a lot of footy to come. But the belief in the group is that we can go all the way. We're not here to make up the numbers," Frost told AAP. "We had a lot of tight games we had to win late in the year just to get to this point. So now we're here, we're going to go as far as we can."

Back in round 10, Hawthorn led Port by as many as 41 points but conceded the final six goals to lose by a point in the dying seconds. On the back of the heartbreaking defeat, Sam Mitchell's side won their next five games and 11 of their next 13 to complete an extraordinary charge into the finals.

"We went away from what we're good at and it was a good learning curve for us in how to finish off a game and not try to save the game too early," Frost said. "A few teams have probably learned that lesson this year. You see in the way big leads get chewed up late in the game.

"We reviewed that and we learned a lot, so we're looking forward to hopefully getting in the same position at three-quarter-time and not making the same mistake."

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And now they go into this weekend's clash with Port full of confidence, while Ken Hinkley's side go in with plenty of doubts after their humiliating 84-point qualifying final loss to Geelong. The prize for the winning side is a preliminary final date with minor premiers Sydney at the SCG - the final stepping stone before the grand final. But Frost is excited to see what his side can do.

"That'll be super challenging," Frost said of the Port Adelaide test. "They're obviously a great team and had a tough loss so they'll be looking to bounce back.

"But if we can get it done, of course, it'll be an unreal redemption story for us and we look forward to that challenge. As much as last time we didn't get over the line in the hostile environment - the swagger of this group, they love hostility. It feeds their energy and they want to play to the crowd a bit, so (we're) not worried about that one bit."