Will Hills will be departing the Hawks for Perth in 2025.
“We are looking for an opponent or trial or anyone who is interested.” Hawks Coach Nick Hall would love his George Tooke Grand Finalists from 2024 to have a trial before the season commences and his hoping a club or a team can step in and find a solution for both clubs if they are yet to trial also.
He said, “We had one partially lined up, but due to the competitions it fell through. Some of the competitions put on some pre-season things which came through and impacted us and it was also impacted by the fact that most competitions start three-four weeks earlier than us, so their time frames don’t match up with us.
“Most people are starting at the start of April and trials are happening and it’s just thrown our timing out a little as far as our preparedness and we need to be prepared, whips cracking and tri-alling earlier.
“It’s a struggle and I’m trying to pull the numbers together. Our guys are geared towards the start date.
“I’m scrambling but I’ve got a few enquiries and people are talking to me. The competitions are a different standard in the region.”
The Hawks didn’t have a trial in 2024 either and it didn’t impact their season, making the Grand Final against a solid Bungendore outfit, but it’s something Hall wants ticked off the list this year.
“It’s business as usual for us, we are ticking along. We have a few new faces which is exciting. I’d love to get some of the old faces and I’d love to see a few more at training. They are coming to training but a little bit intermittent and interspersed with life. There’s things on and it starts in Jan-uary and it’s March now and it’s still happening. It’s Reserve Grade Second Division mentality some-times.”
Hall expressed his frustration at the Hawks having to wait until the week before the Grand Final to actually have his entire squad at training, highlighting that a little more commitment may take the Hawks further this year.
“Our last ever training run was the first time we had every person at training.
“It’s frustrating considering how good a year and how good a feeling and they are great guys and a good team, you just need that reliability, that consistency and every now and then that ebbed and flowed in our performances and it comes from attitude and just getting there and doing it and being consistent. It’s definitely something we have talked about and something that we want to solve this year. We want to talk about it at training when everyone is there and everyone buys into it.”
“If everyone shows up we have 28 players, which is good. A few new faces, a few forwards, a few older fellas, a few younger fellas.”
“We have Casey Wall coming over who is a great player and at this stage he is learning about being a nine and a suitable replacement for Hillsy (William Hills) who is going to Perth.”
“I think people will love seeing Casey play footy. He plays a slightly different game of footy than Hillsy. Hillsy was a zillion miles an hour and then every now and then he would come out like a chook with its head cut off and you just had to love his passion, energy and enthusiasm and he’d challenge the opposition.”
“Casey is a very smart player. He comes out, throws a beautiful pass either side, really good vision, and I think he is going to be more than a capable replacement for Hillsy and people are going to love watching him. He hits heavy and hard, is really crafty, really challenging around rucks, a really calm head and he has a great kicking game. Casey has good primary length, good nice kick of the footy and a good goal kicking option.”
“There’s a number of other good ones, Zakaia Lewis, Corey Lucas, Brett Campbell, Dickie Campbell, Naku Samoa. We’ve got Steve Anderson coming back, he played great a couple of years ago and we have Kyle Sharp.
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