HAWTHORN star Will Day is eyeing a return by the end of May, but before then, Hawks coach Sam Mitchell is using the midfielder as an extra coaching resource to help fill the void left by the 2023 Peter Crimmins medallist. 

The 24-year-old has endured a nightmare injury run across the past two seasons, missing the start of 2024 due to a stress fracture in his navicular bone, before two more issues with the same foot in 2025 restricted him to just six appearances and another September watching on from the stands. 

Day then underwent a shoulder reconstruction in January after a dislocation in his third session back in the main group, following a full recovery from his latest foot injury.

Hawthorn has won finals in each of the past two seasons without Day, reaching a semi-final in a breakthrough 2024 campaign before progressing a week further last year. 

But after exiting last October's trade period with James Worpel moving to Geelong as a free agent and without Zach Merrett moving from Essendon, the Hawks need others to step up in the midfield this year if they are going to go all the way. 

In a wide-ranging pre-season interview with AFL.com.au ahead of his fifth season at the helm, Mitchell explained how Hawthorn is using artificial intelligence in 2026, the profound impact of the Kennedy Community Centre and the recruitment of Daniel Giansiracusa to run a new development department. 

The 43-year-old is confident Day will still play a meaningful role this year and will use him as a resource during the week and on game day until he is ready to return. 

"He [Day] is going well. He's had a bit of time off. He went over to New Zealand and spent a bit of quiet time while he's in his recovery. I'm really pleased that he was able to get a bit of time to himself, but he's back running now, he's back training. He's in a good position," Mitchell told AFL.com.au.

"We've got a couple of little projects we're working on together. We're doing something together where we're working with a couple of players on game trends, things that are happening in the game. He's been fantastic for me on a personal level, helping with my coaching. 

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"He'll have a role to play for us in this early part of the year. As far as when he'll be back, I actually don't know. They said to me four months from when he did it, so I don't know how long it's been, but I'll start putting pressure on the medical team, just not for another month or two, probably."

The midfield will look different in 2026. Hawthorn needs the two players selected at pick No.7 – Josh Ward and Cam Mackenzie – to take another step. Both have starred this summer, along with Connor Macdonald, who has barely played inside across his first 90 games but is poised for more midfield time. As is Josh Weddle, while Henry Hustwaite and Sam Butler have been hunting more opportunities. 

"I'd love to be able to tell you exactly what we're planning with the midfield, but there's two reasons I won't: One is that I wouldn't tell you anyway, and two is we actually haven't made a decision, and it won't be as clear as this player is doing this thing," Mitchell said, with a grin. 

"There'll be a couple of guys that will get more opportunity. Whether that's Henry Hustwaite or Cam Mackenzie or whether it's Connor Macdonald or Josh Weddle. The other one is probably Sam Butler, who played quite a bit in there towards the second half of last year. We're going to mix and match a little bit in the early phase and see what mix starts to work for us."

Mitchell isn't interested in dwelling on the past. Merrett would have been an ideal addition. They offered picks No.10, 22, a 2026 first-round pick and Hustwaite for the then-Bombers captain and a future third-round pick. But it wasn't enough to satisfy Essendon. 

"You look back on it and you think: well we had a good opportunity to get something to work and it didn't work on that occasion. We've had plenty of deals that haven't worked over the years, but this one was played out a little bit more publicly than some others," he said.

"[I was] disappointed at the time that it didn't work, but I haven't given it a lot of thought other than when I'm prepping for media, because I know you guys will ask every time."

Under the direction of Mark McKenzie and Jarryd Roughead, Hawthorn is expected to be active in the free agency and trade space this year with Merrett and Port Adelaide star Zak Butters names to follow again. 

Mitchell was part of Victoria's coaching panel during the AAMI AFL Origin game against Western Australia in Perth. He spent time with Butters but says it wasn't the time to be pitching to rival players to join the Hawks.

"There was certainly no pitching," he said, "but you spent time with every player; you're chatting at the lunch table and you're sitting down with Max Gawn and Marcus Bontempelli. Then the next day you might be sitting with Zak Butters or Caleb Serong.

"I spent a lot of time with every player over there. There was talent on every line, every player was pretty talented."

Hawthorn added a talented teenage midfielder in November after he was overlooked by all 18 clubs at the Telstra AFL Draft. Ollie Greeves was one of the biggest sliders in draft history, before the Hawks swooped with pick No.12 in the Rookie Draft. 

The 191cm big-bodied midfielder took time to get going before Christmas, but has built form in match simulation to earn a shot against Geelong last Monday. 

Mitchell actually lived the experience of being completely overlooked and having to go to the VFL before being drafted out of Box Hill. And so did new co-captain Jai Newcombe. The coach hit home this point to Greeves in early December, imploring him to get to work and not worry about where he was picked. 

"I have had a couple of conversations with him about it, he hasn't done it that hard. I think sometimes when kids don't get drafted as early as they think, they feel hard done by because he's 18 years old. But he only has to look at his newly elevated captain to think I actually did it pretty easy. He got on straight away," he said.

"He's a great kid. He wants to learn. He's played lots of different positions for us. He's played lots of different roles. I'm actually loving how he's gone about it from when he first walked in to now; the level of professionalism and maturity that has grown in him over just a few months has been exactly what you would hope for. 

"He'll continue to grow in the game, but he's still got a lot to learn. I think he's more unlikely than likely to be in our Opening Round side. But he's giving himself every chance to get some AFL exposure this year."

Newcombe's rise from Poowong to Box Hill to Hawthorn has been widely documented for years. Mitchell said his elevation to co-captain over the pre-season – following a phenomenal finals series – was to help alleviate the burden on James Sicily, while also rewarding Newcombe for his development as a leader. 

"[We had] a lot of really good discussions [about the captaincy model]. We've been really open about player leadership for a long time, since I certainly have been coaching the team," he said.

"We've been really open about how the players can lead, how they should lead, and we've talked a lot over the last four to five years about flattening the leadership and making sure there's opportunity for everyone and not making it too much of a burden on any one, two, three, four, five individuals that they have to lead and carry the can all the time. 

"Progressively that has meant that we've changed over time. We haven't had traditional leadership groups. We've done things in our own sort of organic way from what the players need and what the players are suited to, and part of that this year we believe that with James working with him about what is the best for him? What is the best for the playing group? How can they best be led? It came up that if we had Jai those two would round each other out really nicely, they would work well together and that it might take a little bit of pressure off ‘Sis' and add a little bit more to Jai, and that might balance out the way the group is seen, so that's where we ended up."

Sicily battled through lingering hip and groin injuries last year before undergoing a shoulder reconstruction in October, but Mitchell said the All-Australian defender is now ready just in time for the Opening Round trip to western Sydney.

The 31-year-old returned to full training earlier this month, played managed minutes against Geelong in the practice match at the Kennedy Community Centre and will now play a full game in the AAMI Community Series clash against the Western Bulldogs on Friday night.

"We couldn't have asked for much more. We knew he had pretty significant surgery in the off-season and we knew that he would be fine for Opening Round," Mitchell said.

"How much footy he played before that was always going to be up for up for debate. Now he's physically in a really good position, so now it's going to be about performance, and he's given himself every chance to perform well and I've got no doubt he will."

Subscribe to the Your Coach podcast to listen to Josh Gabelich's full interview with Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell in coming days.