Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell says Jacob Koschitzke stays a part of his long-term plans however will not be the rapid resolution to the Hawks’ tall ahead scarcity.
The Hawks shall be with out their attacking point of interest Mitch Lewis till spherical 7 as he recovers from an ACL sprain, however Koschitzke’s kind struggles have prevented him from greedy the chance to cement a spot within the ahead line.
Koschitzke kicked 27 targets in 20 video games in 2021 whereas Lewis was absent for a lot of the season by damage, however Mitchell stated the 22-year-old had suffered an unlucky drop in kind and confidence simply when a spot had opened again up.
“I feel with Kosi, he’s nonetheless making quite a lot of progress as a participant; we’ve been speaking to him commonly about ‘you’re an excellent participant’, averaging seven pictures on aim per week for a couple of month within the pre-season,” Mitchell stated.
“We went to work on his goalkicking and he’s misplaced a little bit little bit of his ahead craft, so getting that stability proper is a part of your growth as a participant.
‘We simply suppose the very best factor for his growth shall be to proceed to play within the VFL for a little bit bit longer to seek out that kind and confidence.”
Mitchell stated making an attempt to nail down his facet’s finest ahead and midfield combine in Lewis’ absence had been certainly one of his greatest challenges this season, with the Hawks the lowest-scoring group, with a median of simply 57 factors per sport within the first 4 rounds.
The Hawthorn coach needs he might have a second Jai Newcombe, with the strong-bodied midfielder offering a robust goal when he spent important intervals ahead in opposition to North Melbourne and Geelong.
“He’s such an ideal ahead goal for us, however he clearly offers us that actual grunt across the ball, together with his tackling strain and his physicality … we most likely did miss it at instances, notably within the third quarter final week,” Mitchell stated.
“So making an attempt to get the stability proper with our midfield-forward group – to be trustworthy, it’s been one of many challenges of the season.
“We’ve gone from 18th at clearances final yr and we’re in entrance of the ledger in the intervening time; I feel we’re fifth … however having the ability to convert that into scores in entrance of the ball has been a problem for us.”
Mitchell stated Chad Wingard would come into the Hawks’ 22 after approaching because the substitute in opposition to Geelong, including there was “no frustration” from the veteran small ahead over the choice.
“He was nice final week and he understood that it was about getting minutes into him and ensuring we might shield him a little bit bit … he was clearly overloaded within the early a part of the season,” he stated.
