Who can fill Jarryd Roughead's gap?

With the loss of Jarryd Roughead, some will be saying the Hawks’ season is done. But for Hawthorn, when one cog goes down, another will fill its place.

For most teams, the loss of the main forward would be the end of their season. But in 2015 the Hawks had three players on the top-20 goal scorers’ list – Jack Gunston, Luke Breust and Roughead.

There were always others who scored as well, giving the Hawks on average 16.9 goals per game.

Despite Roughead’s absence, Hawthorn still have the ability to score.

Then there’s Ryan Schoenmakers, who Hawks fans love at times but hate at others. Thing is, he is a forward, not a defender, and is best-placed to take Roughead’s position.

After showing his ability to fill a gap in 2015, and having improved with taking overhead marks, he now has the chance to cement himself in the team.

Others who could play in Roughead’s place are Tim O’Brian, James Sicily and Matthew Spangher. All have huge potential but have not been able to show it in a team with such a strong line-up as the Hawks have had over the last few years.

The 2016 Hawks forward line will look some think like this:

HF: Cyril Rioli, Jarryd Roughead, Paul Puopolo
F: Luke Breust, James Sicily, Jack Gunston

The forward line is going to be the easy part to fix; what Roughead does around the field – his ability to play rover, ruck and is some cases defence – will be missed the most.

Still, Hawthorn have coped without Roughead in the team before, they should be able to do it again.