Does key Cat need a mini pre-season after injury struggles?

GEELONG forward Tom Hawkins has struggled in his first two games of the 2023 AFL season.

Coming off the high of a 2022 season where he won a premiership, kicked 67 goals and was named All-Australian captain, Hawkins endured an interrupted pre-season where he underwent surgery on a foot issue.

Having kicked just three goals and taken just three marks from Geelong’s opening losses to both Collingwood and Carlton, Hawthorn legend Dermott Brereton believes Hawkins’ lack of fitness is beginning to cost him as he struggles to time his leads inside 50.

“Tom Hawkins just looks like a man who hasn’t had a pre-season and who has played very little football,” Brereton said on AFL Nation.

“He’s never going to be a problem at the boundary line throw-in at the forward 50 and he’s never going to be a problem going for a marking contest when the ball drops steeply.

“But when the ball comes in flat, that’s when you’ve got to get your timing right or on a lead.

“His timing to see the flow of the ball quickly coming towards him is all out at the moment.”

As Hawkins has been clearly hampered in the last fortnight, often seen hobbling around the ground, SEN’s David King asked Kane Cornes whether he’d rest the superstar so he can have a mini pre-season and regain his fitness.

“If you were Chris Scott today, you saw how he moved and he had a limited preparation,” King said on SEN Breakfast.

“We drop into this phase now where it’s play, recover, play, recover – it’s really hard to gain fitness in this phase.

“Would you take him out of football for the next few weeks and do a mini pre-season with him to get him up and going?

“This is their fixture – they’ve got the Suns, Hawthorn and West Coast the next three weeks.”

While Cornes said Hawkins must get fit to regain his best form, he feels he may be able to do that by continually playing.

Despite backing the big forward in to play across the next few weeks, he does expect the veteran to be managed across the season.

“I’d keep playing him, he’s got the 10 days this week,” Cornes said.

“I think you can get fit by playing, I’d keep him in there for the next two or three and see how it goes.

“But at some point, they will manage this group like they have in the past with [Patrick] Dangerfield, [Joel] Selwood and others.

“I think it’s more the corkie in the calf, he got that in the first quarter last week, which is the last thing you need as a 34-year-old when you hadn’t done a pre-season.

“I think it’s more that, he’s going to have time to recover.

“What you’re saying makes sense, I just trust Geelong to do it better than anyone else … they’ve got a history of managing their squad better than anyone in the competition.”

Hawkins and the Cats will hope to bounce back when they face the Suns this Sunday at Heritage Bank Stadium.

– BY LACHLAN GELEIT/ SEN