\n Jarman Impey is excited about having a fully fit Will Day at Hawthorn’s disposal next year\n <\/p>\n
Will Day after Hawthorn’s clash with West Coast in round seven, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
HAWTHORN defender Jarman Impey is backing a “scary” Will Day for a big 2026 after the gun midfielder’s season was cut short by injury.<\/p>\n
Day was restricted to just six games this year after suffering bone stress injuries in his foot.<\/p>\n
The 24-year-old has spent most of the pre-season away from the main group on a modified program, but is expected to be back in full training before the Christmas break.<\/p>\n
With James Worpel departing for Geelong and the failure to land Essendon star Zach Merrett during the trade period, Day looms as an important addition to a young Hawks midfield.<\/p>\n
“He’s a favourite of mine, Will Day. He’s looking really fit, he’s just really locked in, it seems,” Impey told reporters on Saturday.<\/p>\n
“Hopefully he can have a really consistent pre-season and get super, super fit.<\/p>\n
Jarman Impey, Sam Mitchell and Jai Newcombe sing the song after Hawthorn’s win over Adelaide in the semi-final at Adelaide Oval on September 12, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
“It’s going to be very scary getting Will Day 100 per cent fit, so we look forward to that.”<\/p>\n
Geelong smashed the Hawks out of the middle in this season’s preliminary final, and it’s clearly an area of the ground that Sam Mitchell’s side is looking to bolster.<\/p>\n
But Impey believes there is enough developing talent at the club to ensure they are well in premiership contention again next year.<\/p>\n
“Cam Mackenzie is one that pops up into my mind. [Josh] Ward can have a great year, [Henry] Hustwaite can go to another level as well,” he said.<\/p>\n
Cam Mackenzie in action during the round 18 match between Hawthorn and Fremantle at Optus Stadium on July 12, 2025. Picture: Getty Images\/AFL Photos<\/p>\n
“That little crew have been training together in the off-season and coming into the club super early as well.<\/p>\n
“Those boys look fit, they look hungry, I keep talking about personnel, and they’re the ones who I think are ready to take the step and we have big belief in them.”<\/p>\n
Hundreds of fans turned out as the Hawks took to the track for an open training session at the Kennedy Community Centre in Dingley on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n
Impey said it was “pretty cool” to see so many brown and gold supporters turn up in wintry weather.<\/p>\n
“It’s been amazing. I nearly feel like a better player in these facilities. Most of the boys have said the same thing so we’re very excited to be here and we were actually very excited about today, because we knew (the fans) wanted to see the facilities,” Impey said.<\/p>\n
“The boys are very hungry. I know that will stay, and we look forward to the season.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jarman Impey is excited about having a fully fit Will Day at Hawthorn’s disposal next year Will Day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85,83],"class_list":{"0":"post-333733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}