\u2018Doesn\u2019t come up in my algorithm\u2019: Ross hits back at \u2018noise\u2019 after star scrutiny in \u2018abnormal\u2019 AFL<\/a><\/p>\nThe Hawks have now tied together consecutive wins after their season-opening beatdown from GWS to improve to 2-1. <\/p>\n
And aside from Will Day\u2019s shoulder injury set to sideline the star midfielder for multiple months, Mitchell\u2019s side is in good health. <\/p>\n
Combined with Hawthorn having played a pre-season intraclub and two practice games, it sees its Round 3 bye as the \u201cperfect\u201d lead into the annual Easter Monday blockbuster.<\/p>\n
‘He had 1 possession in the 2nd!’ | 00:52<\/p>\n
\u201cIt certainly is weird. But the Hawks aren\u2019t complaining about an 18-day break leading into Easter Monday \u2013 they are absolutely ecstatic about it,\u201d Herald Sun reporter Jon Ralph said post-match on Fox Footy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll give some time to ease some sore bodies there \u2013 notably Nick Watson (corked glute).<\/p>\n
\u201c(Rob) McCartney says the eyes of Peter Burge\u2019s, the club\u2019s fitness boss, absolutely lit up when he realised they had a Round 3 bye.<\/p>\n
\u201c(He said) we had an intraclub, a couple of (practice) games, then we have those three games \u2013 six contests \u2014 and now we get a bye. So it gives them a perfect lead in.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ll have a couple of days off and then some really hard training sessions there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe positive is, apart from Will Day\u2026 there is no other player on their injury list among their best 23. It\u2019s a fantastic launching pad at 2-1.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey get to lick their wounds, they get to train in the next couple of weeks and then they lead in against Geelong.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘An insane start’ Moore | 01:52<\/p>\n
Melbourne legend Garry Lyon was earlier this week critical of the unusual lay-off.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you want to kick a season off and you momentum and you decide to play in Opening Round, which is always going to polarise, at the very least you\u2019ve got to get on a roll,\u201d he said on AFL 360.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Hawks have 18 days off until Easter Monday, so no momentum for them \u2026 that\u2019s nearly three weeks of footy you\u2019re not going to see the Hawthorn footy club play. What is that about?<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Carlton, who are of great interest and infatuation and stirred the emotions of everyone, they\u2019re going to have 17 days off.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the first of eight byes throughout the course of the season, this isn\u2019t a three-week situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThree of those four teams this weekend are preliminary finalists (from last year) \u2014 the teams you want to generate the feeling, the emotion and spirit and drag the people out to games.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t sit right.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hawthorn is only three games into its 2026 season, yet suddenly faces a \u201cweird\u201d 18-day break leading into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,689,55,639,684,27716,7488,6856,1129,19533,12148,12111,272843,70887,272842,272841,10145,7492,5088,681,10400,69201,673,3530,677,29644,7495,148140,252223,668,12936,3495,272840,85,68935,670,7200,162973],"class_list":["post-551548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ben-cotton","tag-box-hill","tag-brad-johnson","tag-carlton","tag-charlie-curnow","tag-day-break","tag-dean-cox","tag-dylan-moore","tag-fantastic-launching-pad","tag-fitness-boss","tag-fixture-quirk","tag-footy-club-play","tag-garry-lyon","tag-hawthorn-hawks","tag-injury-list","tag-jon-ralph","tag-justin-longmuir","tag-mccartney","tag-new-south-wales","tag-nick-watson","tag-oceania","tag-peter-burge","tag-post-game-press-conference","tag-practice-games","tag-preliminary-finalists","tag-press-conference","tag-sam-mitchell","tag-shoulder-injury","tag-sore-bodies","tag-sports","tag-swans-coach","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-swans","tag-time-fixtures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551548","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=551548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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