Josh Ward has, along with Cam Mackenzie, been the short-term beneficiary of Hawthorn's failure to secure the services of Zach Merrett or any other free agent inside midfielder in successive off seasons. They have had to rely on their homegrown talent and their natural progression, which in Ward's case has tended to specialise in hard grunt work while Mackenzie's best plays are on the outside in transition. Like Sam Berry, his star is on the rise but he has not yet established a floor of output that would put him in the A grade of inside midfielders.
