One of Hawthorn’s stars was sidelined again in a crucial match against Carlton and his teammate may not play again this season.
Nick Watson during the Round 16 match between Hawthorn and Greater Western Sydney at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on June 26, 2026. Photo: AFL Photos
LIVEWIRE striker Nick Watson is ruled out of Hawthorn’s big clash with Carlton as Conor Nash continues to battle a neck problem that could end his season.
While defensemen Karl Amon and Jarman Impey could return from injury, the Hawks are being conservative with Watson and have ruled out the star for another week.
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Watson missed last weekend’s heavy defeat to Melbourne with a minor hamstring injury but coach Sam Mitchell was optimistic he would return to play for the Blues.
“He ran at 88 percent of his top speed on Tuesday, which is still faster than most of us,” Mitchell said before Thursday morning practice.
“But from a confidence point of view we don’t think it’s worth taking a chance on him, so he’ll miss another match and be available next week.”
Nash had been out since the 10th round due to a disc-related neck injury that affected the strength and loss of power in one of his arms.
“It’s quite complicated… it’s quite unusual, so we had to go to the experts – he went to Sydney for a week and had further treatment,” Mitchell said.
“Now he definitely won’t play for a month… but we don’t have a time frame, so it’s very realistic that he could miss the rest of this season.
“He’s very upset.”
When asked if Nash could recover from this injury, Mitchell said it was “when, not if.”
“In the worst case scenario, he will miss the rest of the season.”
Conor Nash during Hawthorne’s training session at the Kennedy Community Center on May 19, 2026. Photo: Getty Images/AFL Photos
Defenseman Josh Battle is recovering from having his appendix removed last week and will also remain sidelined.
“All the boys say he has man flu and he should be fine. But, unfortunately, he won’t be there either,” Mitchell said.
Impey (hamstring), Amon (knee), Max Beattie (ankle), James Blanc (hamstring) and Finn Maginness underwent fitness tests in training on Thursday before the squad is named this evening.
The Hawks trailed the Demons by 96 points last weekend before limiting the damage to 35.
Mitchell said the problem was effort, not missing players. He also noted that the team showed character by rallying late.
“When you behave like that, you get performances like that,” he said.
“I consider this a remarkable achievement in terms of effort. I don’t think Hawthorn fans go to games and don’t see the effort on our part.”
Carlton have won seven games in a row under interim coach Josh Fraser and Mitchell is keen to burst that bubble.
“We constantly talked about being a team that could compete consistently, but we failed to do that. Therefore, we will correct this error this week,” he said.
“They’re obviously in great form and there’s no better way to try and get them back on Saturday night at the MCG.”