Alastair Clarkson confident James Frawley can play key role in first game against Melbourne

ALASTAIR Clarkson is confident James Frawley can make an impact in his return for the Hawks, despite Melbourne’s claims they will try to exploit his lack of match fitness.

James Frawley ran laps during THE CLOSED Hawthorn Training Session held at Waverley Park in Melbourne on Tuesday 21st April, 2015. Picture: Mark Dadswell

HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson says he is confident defender James Frawley can make an impact in his return for the Hawks, despite Melbourne’s claims they will try to exploit his lack of match fitness.

Preparing for his first match against his old side, Frawley returns for his first game since Round 2 after missing the past four matches with a pectoral injury.

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Demons forward Chris Dawes said this week that Frawley would be “vulnerable” in terms of his match fitness and the Demons would look to exploit that.

“I haven’t heard anything out of Melbourne, but our medical guys have given him (Frawley) the all-clear in terms of his rehab,’’ Clarkson said.

“We wouldn’t be playing him if we didn’t think he was capable of playing some good footy for us.

“Hopefully he just slots in there and forms part of the six or seven players that protect the goals for the Melbourne side and plays his role and helps us get over the line.

“He is an important player in our back end, we’re excited to get him back in the side and hopefully he goes well against his old team.’’

Clarkson also refused to buy into claims from Dawes that his team was “really gettable” ahead of their clash at the MCG tomorrow.

“We’ll let Melbourne say what they want to say and we’ll say what we want to say,’’ Clarkson said.

“We’ll just prepare for the game and get into it tomorrow afternoon.’’

The Hawks have made a 3-3 start to the season, last week suffering a 10-point loss to Greater Western Sydney.

Clarkson admitted the season had been up and down, but said his team had to focus on corrected lapses in games.

“It’s a bit like a yoyo, we have been up one week and down the next,’’ Clarkson said.

“We have played some pretty good footy ... when we’ve had bad quarters, we have really let it slip and let teams kick four or five goals on the trot and that’s enough to put some scoreboard deficit that has just been too hard to catch up.

“We need to correct that a little bit and hopefully we can correct that against Melbourne.

“We know it’s going to be a tough hard game, they are a very competitive side, they play a lot of man v man footy which makes it very difficult to get your game up and flowing.

“We are fully expecting that and hope that we have to really work hard to get a victory tomorrow afternoon.’’

Clarkson said defender Brian Lake was “pretty close” to returning from his knee injury, but would not be rushed.

“He has got a medial ligament, it was reasonably significant at the time and we have just got tot make sure that is totally right,’’ Clarkson said.

“(We need to) make sure that when he does return he can play some good footy for us over a sustained period.’’

Originally published as Alastair Clarkson confident James Frawley can play key role in first game against Melbourne