{"id":549341,"date":"2026-03-18T23:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T23:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/549341\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T23:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T23:24:08","slug":"hawthorn-will-try-to-nullify-sydney-swans-weapons-in-thursday-night-afl-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/549341\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawthorn will try to nullify Sydney Swans weapons in Thursday night AFL clash"},"content":{"rendered":"

After ominously kickstarting their AFL campaign, Hawthorn are ready to kick up another level to nullify Sydney’s weapons, according to midfielder Conor Nash.<\/p>\n

The Hawks had plenty of expectations heading into 2026 after reaching the preliminary final last year.<\/p>\n

After delivering a lacklustre opening-round loss to GWS, the heat was on.<\/p>\n

But Nash hailed the Hawks’ character after an ominous thumping of Essendon, and he believes it can prove a platform for a strong opening chunk of the year.<\/p>\n

Swans dealt major injury blow<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sydney Swans will be understrength after losing another key player to injury ahead of facing Hawthorn at the MCG tomorrow night.<\/p>\n

“That’s the kind of kick-start you need for your season,” Nash told AAP after the win over Essendon.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got the ball rolling. We looked like us again there. So pretty happy.<\/p>\n

“We know it’s just one week, quick turnaround, and we’ve got a huge test now against Sydney.”<\/p>\n

Red-hot Sydney, who comfortably won their first two games against Carlton and Brisbane, are a daunting prospect in Thursday night’s clash with the Hawks at the MCG.<\/p>\n

“They’ve just got weapons and threats everywhere \u2014 and particularly in midfield, that’s where they’ve got heavy reliance, heavy dominance,” Nash said.<\/p>\n

“We’re gonna have to bring our A–game.<\/p>\n

“It’s gonna have to be up to top notch. We know it’ll go to another level again.<\/p>\n

“But we front up every week, and we’re looking forward to it.”<\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that’s making headlines.<\/p>\n

The Hawks’ midfield of Jai Newcombe, Nash, Josh Ward and Cam Mackenzie got the job done in the clinches against Essendon.<\/p>\n

But Sydney \u2014 albeit without stars Errol Gulden (shoulder) and Isaac Heeney (hamstring) \u2014 still has the likes of Chad Warner, Justin McInerney and James Rowbottom to contend with.<\/p>\n

“They’ve got threats everywhere. We’ll have to have a plan for those boys,” Nash said.<\/p>\n

“The biggest part will be getting it done together as a group.<\/p>\n

“That’s the beauty of our midfield. We try to spread the load. It’s a real workmanlike midfield.”<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After ominously kickstarting their AFL campaign, Hawthorn are ready to kick up another level to nullify Sydney’s weapons,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[5844,638,64,63,55,639,16118,271722,588,85,21453,670],"class_list":["post-549341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-abc-sport","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-hawks","tag-hawthron","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-swans","tag-sydney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549341","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=549341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}