The Hawks have lost star Matt Clarke, defenders Rhys Mehlstaubler and Stephen Crowhurst and small livewire Billy Jury from last year’s list but have added eight new players to their stocks.

The club has welcomed Lockhart forward Daniel Smallwood who will join his brother Shane, while Joe Scott, James Scott, Nathan Scott, Luke McMahon, Chris Hommes, Guy McAlister and Dave Stockdale have also signed up.

Swingman Trent Garner will return to EWK for the season and coach Chris Jackson is confident the handful of new players will complement last season’s list perfectly “We have pretty much stopped recruiting guys now,” Jackson said yesterday.

“We will concentrate on the players we’ve got, which we are very happy with. If anything comes up we will look at it and deal with it then, but at the moment we are more focused on getting everyone fit and ready.”

Garner was one of the Hawks’ best in 2010 when he played back and in the ruck, but left to play for Lavington last season.

His season was brought to an abrupt end before it had started when he tore a knee ligament during pre-season, and was forced to sit on the sideline for the year.

He will return to the field for EWK next month when the team takes on Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes in the first trial game of the year.

“(Garner’s) knee is pretty good now,” Jackson said. “He did it in March or something last year and he has been doing heaps of running and work on it to get it right.”