With the constant bashing from the media around Hawthorn's lack of genuine emerging A-grade players, Alistair Clarkson has lauded some of his emerging stars ahead of the upcoming season.
He has particularly singled out the likes of emerging intercept defender James Sicily and new recruit Jarmen Impey as future potential elite players of club.
Impey is in a similar situation as the likes of recycled stars Jack Gunston, Jaeger O’Meara and Tom Mitchell, who the Hawks have targeted and recruited as a 22-23 year old, due to not having the opportunity in their draft year to draft them.
"We’re pretty excited that even though we missed out on these players as 18-year-olds from a drafting sense, we still feel like bringing them in at 22-23 years of age they can have eight-to-10 year careers at our club." Clarkson said to AFL.com.au.
"Sicily is a very special player," Clarkson said.
"His ability to read the ball off the boot in play either as a forward or back is as good as some of the best players I have seen in terms of aerial ability in the last 10 to 15 years.
"That's a big statement and one that will carry some pressure with it. But we have some high hopes about what he can become as a player. He was a third-round pick who can become an A-grader."
There is however one aspect of Sicily's game that Clarkson does admit needs improvement. At times, it appears that Sicily's temperament does get the better of him.
"With Sicily, there is no point trying to sweep things under the carpet," Clarkson said.
"He has some things in his temperament and with being able to push aside the emotions of the game and we still see evidence in stages of games when he just loses it.
"But if he can manage that temperament and that's our biggest challenge as coaches, if we can steer him through that, he’s got leadership written all over him and he has star quality written all over him, but he is impulsive, and he has a temper, as does his coach, so I have empathy with him.
"If we can channel that in the right direction and put a harness on him when he strays, he can be a very important player for us as we climb back up the ladder."
The 23-year-old moved to the back line in round 14 last season, where he averaged 24.1 possessions, 9.1 marks and 2.2 contested marks a game.
Clarkson also nominated Harry Morrison, to potentially have a break out year for the Hawks, who made his debut in the last round last season, playing off half back.
"He had a knee reconstruction at TAC Cup level, has played one game of AFL footy and played really, really well. He has the temperament to become a really fine player. Will he get to A-grade status? It is too early to say definitively but there are signs that he could."
We will catch a glimpse of these potential starts when the Hawks play in the JLT series on the 3rd of March against the Western Bulldogs and on the 10th of March against Carlton.
