Hawks coach Gavin McMahon was pleased to report the key forward might have dodged the feared scaphoid fracture, but says they’re not celebrating yet. 

“The second one showed no fracture, so we’re pretty relieved,” McMahon said.

“But it’s one of those ones – they should show up by now but he’s not out of the woods yet. So it’s good news of course but there’s still a part of you that’s not sure to be honest.”

Provided no break shows up, Mearns may be ready to play the final round game against Coleambally, which could potentially be for the minor premiership. 

McMahon said, looking on the bright side, the injury has given the Hawks reason to look at alternatives.

Steve Smith has been named at centre-half-forward for Saturday’s game at Barellan. Zac Robinson may also spend some time there while ruckman Nick Hull has been devastating on occasions going forward.

“In some ways it’s been nice to give a couple of people a run there –  if Billy doesn’t come up (for finals) we need to make sure we have the other options,” McMahon said. 

McMahon hasn’t been impressed with the Hawks’ recent form and is looking for improvement at Barellan.

“Coming off the bye, we want to improve every contest, every quarter, from start to finish,” he said.

“We’ve got three weeks to get everyone right and to be playing better footy – which we haven’t played for six or seven weeks.”

The Hawks finish off with home games against Temora and Coleambally.