Fit-again Hawk tipped to rise as Brownlow hype begins

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Fit-again Hawk tipped to rise as Brownlow hype begins

A fit-again Will Day will take the competition by storm, Hawthorn teammate Jai Newcombe is certain.

Day proved the difference in the Hawks engine room as they claimed a hard-earned 20-point win over Sydney in the AFL season opener at the SCG.

In his first game back since a collarbone injury ruled him out of finals last year, the 23-year-old showed no signs of rust and slotted three goals from 19 touches by halftime.

He had only kicked a total of three majors last year, having also missed the first six games with a foot injury.

Day momentarily sent a scare through the Hawks camp and their faithful when he walked off in the third quarter looking sore, but he was only troubled by a cramp.

James Jordon was deployed to curb Day’s momentum in the second half and while the statistics sheet suggest the Sydney tagger succeeded, Hawks coach Sam Mitchell praised his star’s critical last quarter performance off the ball.

Day’s exceptional performance has already generated premature Brownlow Medal hype, with fellow midfielder Newcombe jumping on the bandwagon.

“I’m all about it. Get behind him,” Newcombe told AAP.

“It’s going to be exciting to watch, to have him at full fitness and flying.

“I’d love nothing more than to see him get a full run at it this year and show the competition what he’s capable of.”

Day is now second in some bookmakers’ Brownlow medal markets, second to only Nick Daicos.

Newcombe was also influential for the Hawks at the contest with 19 touches and showed his quality in helping Karl Amon pull off an early goal-of-the-year contender.

Amon had burned off Sydney players James Rowbottom and Joel Amartey down the corridor, before dancing past Braeden Campbell and Will Hayward to give off to Newcombe.

Newcombe kept his cool under hot pressure from Dane Rampe to hand back to Amon, who slotted easily for the exclamation mark.

Sydney looked to mount a second-half challenge and almost pulled it off after kicking five goals to two in the third quarter.

But a desperate Hawthorn, helped by heavy rain, held on.

Hawthorn captain James Sicily also impressed at both ends with 20 disposals and the final goal of the match.

“My heart rate was high for a while there, but it’s nice to get one on the board early,” Newcombe said.

“We had to dig deep to wrestle it back and get it on our terms and play the way we wanted to … it was never going to be all on our terms.

“To have the intent early, to be in the contest and give yourself a chance is going to be pivotal in every game.

“There’s a long way to go, but we’ve got our ambitions and we’ll try and chase them down.”

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