{"id":43210,"date":"2025-08-04T16:29:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T16:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/43210\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T16:29:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T16:29:11","slug":"matthew-lloyd-urges-hawthorn-to-go-after-a-star-midfielder-in-the-trade-period-labels-it-their-biggest-weakness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/43210\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Lloyd urges Hawthorn to go after a star midfielder in the trade period, labels it their biggest weakness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Goal kicking champion Matthew Lloyd<\/a> is adamant that Hawthorn<\/a> must target a star midfielder in the upcoming trade period, in order to fix their “biggest weakness”. <\/p>\n

The Hawks bolstered their key defensive stocks in last year’s trade period, adding Josh Battle and Tom Barrass, but their midfield depth has been tested this season.<\/p>\n

With Will Day out for the season with a nasty foot injury<\/a>, Lloyd believes the Hawks lack a match-winner in the middle.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Thrilling finale’ ends with Indian victory despite heroic act<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Phone call from rival coach may flip star free agent’s mind<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Magpies legend eyes all-time record with fresh contract<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Will<\/p>\n

Will Day of the Hawks is taken from the oval with an injury.\u00a0AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Hawks have tough ball-winners in Jai Newcombe, James Worpel, Conor Nash and Josh Ward, but lack polish outside of the injured Day.<\/p>\n

Lloyd believes it is holding them back from potential premiership contention and has urged Hawthorn to get aggressive in the upcoming trade period.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s their biggest weakness,” Lloyd told Nine’s Footy Classified.<\/p>\n

“Will Day, obviously there’s now question marks around him, he’s their star, but after him there’s a big void.<\/p>\n

“Sam Mitchell is one of the more aggressive coaches in terms of going after players so I would be shocked if they don’t bring in an A-grade midfielder over this off-season.”<\/p>\n

Footy Classified is now available as a podcast! Subscribe\/follow via Apple<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> or Google Podcasts<\/a><\/p>\n

Lloyd believes the Hawks should aim as high as possible in their pursuit of a star midfielder.<\/p>\n

“You’d start by asking about Zak Butters and if you can’t get Zak Butters, you see who else is out there,” Lloyd said.<\/p>\n

\"Zak<\/p>\n

Zak Butters\u00a0AFL Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Butters is contracted to Port Adelaide for 2026, where he will become a free agent, and has been linked with a return to Victoria.<\/p>\n

Hawthorn has the salary cap space and draft picks to get something done in the trade period, holding Carlton’s first-round pick in the 2025 draft.<\/p>\n

The Hawks could become the first team in AFL history to miss the top eight with 14 wins if things break poorly for them in the final three weeks of the season.<\/p>\n

They play Collingwood in round 22 before finishing the season with Melbourne and Brisbane at the Gabba. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Goal kicking champion Matthew Lloyd is adamant that Hawthorn must target a star midfielder in the upcoming trade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-43210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43210","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=43210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}