Hawthorn has made it abundantly clear that they will target key position players in the upcoming trade period.
The injury to key forward Mitch Lewis and the emerging duo of Calsher Dear (11 goals) and Mabior Chol (25 goals) won't stop the Hawks' list management strategy of bringing in more support.
While down the other end, Head of Football Rob McCartney says the club will seek depth in the defensive posts, allowing captain James Sicily and Jack Scrimshaw more freedom, starting with St Kilda free agent Josh Battle.
SEE MORE: FIVE potential trade targets - Hawthorn
โI don't think it changes,โ McCartney said onย SEN's Sportsday.
โWe've always said over the last couple of years that we know where the needs of our list build are at.
โWe've said even with Mitch, if the opportunity arose for us to get a key forward and a key defender, we'd be in the market for both of those positions.
โSo that doesn't change. Obviously, we still would look to add a key forward to our group, but that's not because of Mitch not being part of 2025.
โBut what we have had is the surprise of Calsher Dear and his performance in this season. So we might be in a little bit better position than we were at the start of 2024 in terms of the depth of the stocks in that area of the ground, but he'll be missed.
โMabior (Chol) has done an outstanding job in terms of coming to his third club and making an impact more or less immediately.
โSo we've got a little bit of depth, but we always knew that even with Mitch, we were going to be in the hunt for another key forward over this journey.โ
The specific focus suggests that the Hawks are more than satisfied with their midfield brigade and how it is developing.
Lloyd Meek (26) and Ned Reeves (25) cover the ruck duties whilst Chol assists as a second option.
Then Conor Nash, James Worpel, Dylan Moore, Jai Newcombe, Finn Maginness, Will Day and Josh Ward are all under 26 years of age while Cam Mackenzie, Connor Macdonald and Henry Hustwaite are building nicely into their careers.
It comes as the Hawks have revived from an 0-5 start to be a game outside the top eight, with a mouth-watering clash against Collingwood set to descend on the MCG.
Senior coach Sam Mitchell has rallied his troops and has quickly turned the brown and gold into a destination club, using the state-of-the-art facility as part of the selling pitch.
Western Bulldogs midfielder Bailey Smith and GWS utility Harry Perryman have been linked, with the latter receiving a reportedly whopping $4 million offer over five seasons.
