Trade talk: Hawthorn future in hands of Dear

Hawthorn GM of football, Rob McCartney, says the choice to remain a Hawk will be Calsher Dear’s.

Father/son prospect Dear is yet to sign on with the Hawks beyond 2026, with the out-of-contract 21-year-old finding it tricky to hold down a spot in the AFL side.

He has been linked to Melbourne, Collingwood, St Kilda, Geelong and Carlton, and many expect him to depart the club, particularly with Ben King a chance of joining the Hawks as a free agent this off-season.

McCartney is acutely aware of the situation, acknowledging that the club is determined to keep getting better and sometimes that might mean losing key talent.

“I won’t talk individually about Calsher, but getting better is a concept we talk about all the time,” McCartney said on SEN’s AFL Nation broadcast.

“Getting better is using all the mechanisms available to you to build your list. Draft is one of them, free agency is another, trade is another.

“With those secondary mechanisms I spoke about, often what happens is to move in some players you’ve got to move out some players.”

But he insists the patient Hawks see Dear as a player for the future who they'd like to keep.

“We’re still very much in negotiations with Calsher and his management. We do see a young player who has a lot of ability, and we’re really comfortable about where he’s at in his journey,” McCartney added.

“He’s three years in, he had an amazing finals series in that first year (2024). I think then the bar was set for a lot of people that that was going to be his watermark.

“He’s a kid that didn’t play a lot of football in his junior years, and we know that he’s continuing to learn, grow and develop and he’s still going to be a player who will get better.

“Whether that comes to being that he wants to play more football and we’re not able to provide that here at Hawthorn, well that’s going to be his choice.

“But we have had some conversations with his management showing that we definitely want him to stay at the Hawks.”

Another potential son of a gun in Hawthorn circles is none other than Cooper Hodge.

The 18-year-old son of club legend Luke is eligible for both the Hawks as a father/son and the Brisbane Lions through their Academy.

McCartney says the Hawks are taking a very balanced and patient approach while the talented youngster makes his decision.

“The one thing we will say is the Hodge family are always going to be connected to the brown and gold,” McCartney said.

“While Cooper is playing a little bit of footy with the VFL team at Brisbane, we had the three younger boys in Chase, Leo and Tanner who joined us on our captain’s run yesterday (Thursday), which was amazing.

“Our strategy with this is to make sure that whatever decision Coop has in front of him, he always knows that his family and he will be connected to the history of the Hawthorn footy club.”

Hodge had 12 disposals and three tackles for the Lions in their crushing 98-point VFL win over Southport on the weekend.

Mitchell hopeful in-demand Hawk turns back on rivals

Hawks coach Sam Mitchell is still very hopeful that Dear will remain at the club beyond this season.

With Dear currently unable to get a senior game, Kane Cornes warned the Hawks last week that they could lose him.

He then told Mitchell on Fireball on Friday morning that the Hawks only have themselves to blame should he look elsewhere.

While Mitchell understands that the young forward wants to be playing AFL footy, he hopes his open communication with Dear helps convince him to remain in brown and gold.

Cornes: “Calsher Dear, they're coming for him, Mitch.

“I feel like you've only got yourself to blame when you start picking 18-year-olds (Aiden Schubert) over him and he's stuck in the VFL again, even though you tell us he's in good form.

“There are four clubs lining up. How do you see this playing out, and are you frightful that he'll leave?”

Mitchell: “Are there four clubs lining up? I saw him in a (photoshopped) Melbourne jumper. That made me feel a bit uncomfortable during the week, I must admit.”

Cornes: “There’s (also) Collingwood.”

Mitchell: “We get along well, Calsher and I, we’ve had good chats all through this process.

“Understandably, contract-wise, it's taken a bit longer because he obviously wanted to get into the side and show what he could do, and that hasn't come to fruition just yet.

“But there's contracts there, and there's talks there, so we’re still very hopeful. This is a tricky time of year for everyone, so who knows what'll happen. But we've had very open communication about all these things.

“Box Hill will have a bye this week, unfortunately, but his form in the last month has been exactly what we're after.

“So, expect to see him soon.”

Dear’s next chance to play footy will come either at AFL level in Round 23 against Collingwood or in the final round of the VFL home and away season next Sunday against Casey.