{"id":464588,"date":"2026-02-07T14:49:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T14:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/464588\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T14:49:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T14:49:15","slug":"hawthorn-hawks-co-captain-jai-newcombe-is-confident-josh-weddle-will-re-sign-despite-massive-interest-from-bitter-rivals-essendon-bombers-who-are-looking-to-re-sign-zach-merrett-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/464588\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawthorn Hawks co-captain Jai Newcombe is confident Josh Weddle will re-sign despite massive interest from bitter rivals Essendon Bombers, who are looking to re-sign Zach Merrett"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s not affecting us,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s for Zach and his party, and Essendon, to sort of deal with. He\u2019s not here, so it has no influence on what we are doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a rivalry between Hawthorn and Essendon for a long time, so that\u2019s not going to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hawthorn suffered a minor setback when forward Jack Ginnivan suffered a broken finger in match simulation on Saturday morning and was taken for scans, but the injury is not expected to keep him out of the start of the season.<\/p>\n

\"Jack<\/p>\n

Jack Ginnivan broke his finger during pre-season match simulation.Credit: AFL Photos<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile he will miss the next few weeks of pre-season, we expect him to be fully fit for opening round [against GWS],\u201d club doctor Liam West said.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

Newcombe\u2019s co-captain James Sicily<\/a> is also on track to return for opening round after undergoing a shoulder reconstruction.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s doing everything he needs to get back,\u201d Newcombe said of Sicily. \u201cHe\u2019s been on the sidelines for a little bit, but he\u2019s ticking all the right boxes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hawks are looking to run Josh Ward, Connor Macdonald and even mercurial forward Nick Watson through the midfield this season to compensate for the loss of James Worpel (to Geelong) and the injured Will Day (shoulder).<\/p>\n

\u201cNo doubt he\u2019ll play through [the midfield] at times,\u201d Newcombe said of Watson. \u201cHe\u2019s lively wherever he is, so it\u2019s exciting when he\u2019s around the footy. And yeah, we\u2019ll use that to our advantage as best we can.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A free-wheeling Weddle at Hawks training recently.Credit: AFL Photos<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever the balance is that we need, and whatever we think\u2019s right at the time will be, you know, how we best utilise him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s an excitement machine. He brings a lot of energy for us, for the fans, for everyone. So, yeah, we\u2019ve got multiple levers looking forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newcombe, 24, who has played 102 games for the Hawks since being picked up in the 2021 mid-season rookie draft, said it was still \u201cearly days\u201d for Day, who is expected to miss the first half of the season following shoulder surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got a bit of a journey to go before he\u2019s obviously back and fully fit and things like that,\u201d Newcombe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we wrap our arms around him, [and] support him the best way we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

Newcombe said the Hawthorn faithful should not expect too many surprises when the season kicks off in earnest early next month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a lot right through last season to get to the prelim,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the maturity and mentality side of things \u2013 to be able to perform in those big games \u2013 is something that we need to get better at, and sort of what held us back in not being part of the big dance last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s not affecting us,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s for Zach and his party, and Essendon, to sort of deal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-464588","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\/464588","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=464588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}