Grant Birchall’s playing future continues to be unknown after the first day of the AFL trade period.
The four-time Hawthorn premiership player has played 248 games for the club in brown and gold but has only managed to play in eight matches over the past three seasons, mostly due to lingering knee injuries.
Hawks football boss Graham Wright says the club will wait until after the trade period to see the lay of the land and assess whether they can offer the free agent a contract.
"We said we'd wait until we got through the Trade Period with 'Birch', and him and his management are aware of that," Wright told reporters today.
That said, Wright also noted that would they have a spot, they would “love to give him the opportunity.”
One club that is said to have interest in the veteran is the Brisbane Lions.
The Lions are rumoured to be mulling over the idea as they consider whether they will need to replace the on-field experience of another Hawk great, Luke Hodge, who retired after the Lions semi-final loss to the Giants.
The average age in the Lions line up last year was 25.2, and that was with Hodge in the team.
However, Lions boss David Noble says the club won’t be rushing their decision-making process.
"We are deciding where we're going to go; if we need to go with another mature-age guy. That's sort of where we're at," Noble said.
"Those sorts of things are going to play out a bit later – like later in the week or early next week – so we've just got to determine the impact 'Hodgey' has probably left us and whether or not we need to continue to go down that path.”
