Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell has backed small forward Jack Ginnivan to push through his goal-kicking drought and get back to his influential best.
Former Collingwood forward Ginnivan was one of the recruits of 2024, kicking 28 goals and delivering 13 goal assists in a dynamic small forward line that powered Hawthorn to a semi-final.
But the 22-year-old has had a more difficult start to 2025.
Ginnivan kicked two goals against Essendon in round one but went goalless in his other four games, including in Hawthorn's loss to Port Adelaide.
"The thing with Jack, there's always so much interest in him," Mitchell said on Thursday.
"He's still a very young player playing in a very difficult position. As a forward pocket it's one of the most difficult positions on the ground to be consistent in
"We have Luke Breust who kicked his 550th goal on the weekend, and he's been the sub for us for a large period of the last 12 months.
"When you have players like that who have been able to maintain consistency, they're quite rare.
"Most small forwards go through ebbs and flows in their form and Jack's going through a little bit of that at the moment, and I've got no doubt he's going to be a very, very good player for us for a long period of time."
Mabior Chol has also had a tough start to the year, which Mitchell attributed to the big man being the No.1 tall forward.
"Is he playing his absolute best footy right now? Probably not, and we'd love everybody to be playing better, of course," Mitchell said.
"He does have a tough role, but he's been really important for us."
Mitchell said the Hawks hadn't discussed whether to throw skipper James Sicily forward.
Hawthorn (4-1) have quickly moved on from their disappointing loss to the Power ahead of their Easter Monday clash with Geelong (3-2).
"It's really important that the players know that was a bad performance - it doesn't make us bad," Mitchell said.
"So we need to perform better than that and we know that there are things we can do in our game that will ensure that we can play better.
"We still feel like we're a side in pretty good form. We had a really bad half of footy, and that's not going to be competitive against the best sides, and that's what we want to be.
"So we've got some work to do, but we understand that."
Conor Nash (wrist) will be available, but Connor Macdonald (ankle) will need to prove his fitness.
