Star won’t be Hawks’ silver bullet, says coach

Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell says Will Day’s comeback will not “fix every problem” the Hawks are facing as he suggested the returning star would spend time as a defender.

Day will play his first game for the season against Sydney at the MCG on Sunday after recovering from a foot stress fracture which sidelined him in January.

Mitchell said the reigning best and fairest would play “slightly lower game time” against the Swans as he built his conditioning but had no restrictions imposed on him by medical staff.

The coach warned fans not to expect his return would immediately cure Hawthorn’s midfield malaise, with the Hawks 18th for total centre clearances in their 1-5 start to the season.

“He’ll come back into the side, and we’re looking forward to having him out there, he’ll just give us a little bit of something different around the middle of the ground,” Mitchell said on Friday.

“He’s still young, he hasn’t played a heap of footy, so it’s not like he’s going to be the man that fixes every problem we’ve had across the season so far.

“I think it’s important that he gets back out there and starts to find his feet again, but I think everyone will be pleased to have him back out on the field.”

Mitchell said Day would likely rotate between the midfield and a defensive role after he started his AFL career at halfback.

“The medical suggestion is that he can play wherever we deem it best. He’s done the majority of his training as a midfielder, but we know that he’s probably done more as a defender other than that, so probably expect to see him in those two roles,” Mitchell said.

“He’ll probably play slightly lower game time … but if we were to get an injury he’s capable of playing a full 100 minutes or thereabouts.”

The coach said he wanted Hawthorn to maintain the “chip on the shoulder” it had coming into the North Melbourne clash after a humiliating defeat to Gold Coast the week before.

He said the focus was on maintaining the fierce training intensity of the previous week, as key forward Mitch Lewis was put through a fitness test at Waverley Park in his bid to return from a knee complaint.

“I think Mitch has got a couple of things to tick off – if he gets through training, then he’ll be available for selection,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell was “enormously proud” that dual premiership teammate Lance Franklin would return to the MCG on Sunday to be formally farewelled from the game by Hawthorn supporters.

He said he hoped to have Franklin speak to the Hawks players before the clash.

“I think when Lance Franklin’s coming to the MCG, everyone is pretty excited, even if it just is as a spectator,” Mitchell said.

“To have Bud back, he’s a premiership teammate of mine personally, and a guy I spent so much time with and just had the pleasure of front-row seats to everything he was able to do both on and off-field.

“I’m enormously proud that he’s coming back to the MCG, to the game.

“I won’t go into too much detail about how we’ll use him, I think he’s always been reasonably private in that way, but any access and anything we can do to lean on Bud and his legacy will be fantastic for our playing group.”