Hawthorn’s hopes of completing a historic ‘fourpeat’ have taken a blow with the news that star forward Jarryd Roughead will miss the first half of the 2016 season.
The Hawks revealed on Saturday morning that the four-time premiership star and 2013 Coleman Medallist had been suffering from a PCL injury for some time and would now require a full reconstruction, ruling him out for the next 4-5 months.
The key forward is no stranger to injury layoffs having previously suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon in 2011 which cost him half a season, and last season missing several weeks after having a melanoma removed from his lip.
Missing arguably the most important player in their forward line, the Hawks will have to reshape what has been the most effective offensive unit in the game for several years now.
Luckily for the Hawks they have no shortage of prolific goalkickers even with Roughead on the sidelines, but whether any of them can fill the same role he did is another question.
Ryan Schoenmakers may be the man who steps up after a breakout performance in the 2015 finals series – this could be his golden opportunity to cement himself as a key player in the Hawks’ forward mix.
Jonathon Ceglar may also get more opportunities for the side both as a forward option and a ruckman given the combination of Roughead’s injury and David Hale’s retirement.
The Hawks might even get some use out of discarded Demon Jack Fizpatrick, whom they recruited in last year’s trade period.
The biggest question of course is whether or not the injury threatens to derail Hawthorn’s season and prevent them winning a fourth consecutive flag.
Only one team in history has previously achieved that – Collingwood in 1927 through 1930 – and the Hawks were hoping to be come the first team to do it in the modern era.
While Roughead is arguably one of the most important members of the Hawthorn side, one of the strengths of the Hawks in these past few years has been the team’s ability to avoid reliance on any one player.
Of the six games the Hawks have played without Roughead in the last four years, they’ve won four and had an average score of 118 points across all six matches.
The two losses both came in away matches in 2014, against Port Adelaide (lost by 14 in Round 10) and Fremantle (lost by 19 in Round 21).
If Roughead can return to peak fitness by the latter half of the season, the Hawks have already proven that they can win a flag from outside the top two if they need to, as they did in 2015.
In unfortunate news for the rest of the competition, despite this setback, the fourpeat is still very much alive.
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