Two pre-season games after two years in the wilderness have Jaeger O'Meara confident that he will not only be right to play round one but will be able to play consistently all year.
Hawthorn's bullishness that they could get O'Meara's body right appears justified with the recruit a star performer in the Hawks' pre-season loss to North Melbourne at Arden Street.
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Suns sneak past Bombers, Kangaroos down Hawks
The Gold Coast fight back from 24-nil down to defeat Essendon in Mackay by three points, while a strong effort from North Melbourne saw them beat Hawthorn by 11.
The result of the match – a 21-point win for North – is irrelevant for the Hawks who instead drew confidence from the form of O'Meara and fellow recruits Ty Vickery and Tom Mitchell. Vickery was very good and Mitchell accumulated the most touches for the Hawks.
O'Meara, who had 23 disposals on Sunday, remains the "X-factor" this season for the rebuilt Hawks, and he declared he has belief once more in his body.
"It felt good, obviously it was my second hit-out so I blew out some more cobwebs. It's good to get some consistency and play two games in a row … I am confident in the knee," he said.
"Obviously I haven't played too much footy in the past couple of years so it's nice to play a full game out and play two in a row. It's all about the build-up to round one and the season ahead … I want to play consistent footy. It's going well at the moment and hopefully it keeps going well.
"I was confident I would be playing footy pretty quickly but I'm just taking it as it comes and pleasingly everything is going really well at the moment. This is just how I am. This is my body. I have had a knee injury and I will continue to look after that and see how it goes but I'm confident I will play consistent footy this year."
However O'Meara and the Hawks' coach of the day Cam Bruce fell short of declaring him a certain starter for the round-one clash at night against Essendon on March 25.
"I'm not too sure I will have to wait and see when it comes around, we have got another JLT game, so I will get geared up to play in that and see how we go. I assume [I'll play], we've got two weeks until that game, I've got plenty of time to recover and refresh so, I hope I am playing. The more [games] the better for me."
O'Meara said he never felt the injuries would stop him getting back to playing again but he was always unsure of the timeframe.
"I got pretty sick of swimming and boxing and doing everything bar playing footy. It didn't feel like it had beaten me at any stage. I always felt like I had that self-belief that I was going to get back to playing footy. It was just matter of when and now I have strung a couple of games together, albeit JLT games, hopefully I can be ready for the season ahead."
O'Meara was the highlight of the JLT match for the Hawks whose ball movement was blighted by uncharacteristically poor ball use and decision making.
Vickery was very good for the Hawks, presenting well from the goal square, booting a couple of goals and creating a spread of options.
Roughead came into the middle to provide an extra big body to help with clearances. He has done this before but it is an interesting measure of his recovered fitness after his illness that he was able to do so again already.
Hawthorn used Marc Pittonet and Jack Fitzpatrick played a half each in first ruck and neither overly distinguished themselves.
James Sicily was used in defence and did very well for the Hawks, looking comfortable in the role.
"He is learning a lot about playing defence," Bruce said. "That will improve his forward line work, it will also add a fair bit as a backman. He is continuing to find areas where he may get exposed or hurt the opposition as a defender."
Ryan Burton played forward while Kade Stewart was busy as a small forward and added the pressure and intensity in Paul Puopolo's absence.
Will Langford suffered a knock from teammate Luke Breust in a contest in the second quarter and sat out the rest of the game.
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