THERE was a very good reason why Hawthorn required more than the allotted two minutes to consider how best to invest its third and final selection, pick 45, in yesterday's national draft — an at-times fiery internal debate that had continued for weeks had to be resolved first.

Coach Alastair Clarkson, with the youngest list in the game and high expectations to control, wanted to buy experience with the pick. Stuart Dew, the 28-year-old former Port Adelaide premiership flanker blessed with a left-foot kick as long and straight as an outback highway, was his choice.

Many others around Clarkson, among them Chris Pelchen, head of the club's recruiting and list management, thought otherwise. There was, for example, 18-year-old Dan McKenna to consider, McKenna being a key-position player out of Gippsland thought capable of addressing the club's long-standing need for a tall defender.

And so when the moment to make the call arrived, recruiting manager Gary Buckenara asked for more time. Two minutes later, as the extension expired, what emerged was Dew's name and the first sign that the Hawks, or at least Clarkson, consider themselves close enough to contention to recruit for the now.

McKenna went to Geelong five selections later. He is unlikely to play league football next year but the premier doesn't need him to and he could still be with the club in a decade. Dew, the first of five players recycled this year, probably has fewer than 50 games left in his body but can give them to his new club immediately. At least once he is in shape. When Dew, who is not tall by football standards at 182 centimetres, spoke with Clarkson several months ago about the prospect of an end to the retirement he announced last year, he weighed 125 kilograms. He had not long returned from America, where he and former girlfriend, the actress Teresa Palmer, had decided to take her career.

Quickly he was down to 116 kilograms but today he is still 104. Admittedly, people involved with Dew's last season with Port remember him playing at 107 but the Hawks want him to shed a further 10 kilograms over the remainder of the pre-season.

"There is no doubt that it's a calculated risk to bring Stuart back into AFL footy; he's had 12 months off, he chose to travel overseas this year and it would be fair to say he's got a way to go (with his fitness)," Pelchen said later.

"He is still just over 100 kilograms but having said that, we've been monitoring his fitness over the last couple of months and he's already shed a lot of weight. He's working three and four sessions a day.

"So it's a risk but it is also acknowledgement of the fact that in 2008 we will have the youngest list in the competition for the third consecutive year, we've had three guys over the age of 30 retire in the off-season and there will be only one player older than Stuart on our list next year. In those circumstances we see the risk as worth it."

A player who will also be returning to Australia to start his football career over, for personal reasons not dissimilar to those of Dew, is Fraser Gehrig, who was reclaimed by St Kilda with pick 57.

St Kilda coach Ross Lyon spoke with Gehrig on draft eve, to be certain of his intention to return from Europe and commit himself fully to another season, and yesterday, only months after announcing his retirement, the 31-year-old full-forward was officially back in the game.

He is expected to reappear at Moorabbin sooner than even the Saints had first expected. "Originally he had spoken about being back by Christmas but he's now looking to get back ASAP," St Kilda football manager Matthew Drain said.

It is understood the Saints were weighing up the option of recruiting former Essendon premiership player Mark Johnson until Gehrig contacted Lyon with his suggestion of a comeback and when the draft began had their fourth and final selection, pick 70, set aside for him.

"We were originally going to take him (Gehrig) at 70 but there were four or five guys still there that we were prepared to take at 70 and there was just that nagging doubt that someone else would jump in and nab him," Drain said.