And so it transpired on Tuesday when the beloved 29-year-old instructed his emotional teammates not to suffer on his behalf. Addressing the saddened group, Roughead's urging so went along the following lines: "Get on with it, don't feel guilty about having a laugh and enjoying yourself. Don't feel awkward about worrying about football".

To senior staff and coaches Roughead asked only for business as usual at the football club that has been his home for almost 12 years. He has asked for no fuss and minimum attention. The Hawks remained unsure whether Roughead would attend Friday night's clash with Sydney believing he would rather the focus move away from him.

Speaking on Tuesday with his friend and now Sydney assistant coach Stuart Dew, Roughead commented that one of his next calls would be to another old teammate and close friend Lance Franklin. Because Roughead knew that Franklin would be struggling with the news his cancer had returned and spread.

Football clubs, like all living and breathing organisms, respond in various ways to bad news and shock. Good football clubs mix mechanics with sensitivity as they put in place plans to cope with what must come next.

One senior Hawthorn person made the sad observation this week that he wasn't sure the Hawks handled personal trauma better than any other club.

"It's just that we've had more practice," he said.

Those mechanisms saw the Hawks work through and ultimately thrive as football club without peer despite the mid-season illness of head coach Alistair Clarkson in 2014. Just as assistant coach Brett Ratten will always grieve for his son Cooper who died last year in a car accident, the club still deals with that tragedy on a regular basis, insisting Ratten put his grief first and head home on the worst of days.

To that end the club's player development manager Cam Matthews is working closely with Hawks' footballers' wives and girlfriends, summoning the women together without their partners to look at ways to best provide support for Sarah Roughead.

Club chief executive Stuart Fox said the running the football club underneath the giant shadow cast by the news that Roughead's cancer had spread to multiple parts of his body would remain a team effort - overseen also by football boss Chris Fagan, coach Clarkson, player welfare boss Jason Burt and fitness boss Andrew Russell. "We're doing everything possible internally to support Jarryd and Sarah and the family," said Fox. "And the internal family here at Hawthorn are obviously hurting and we're looking out for them as well.

"The important thing for Jarryd I think is for things here to return to normal as soon as possible. That's our feeling internally too."

Roughead, who just days ago believed his comeback from a serious knee injury had been fast-tracked to the point he could be playing next week at the Gabba against Brisbane, will remain an active player in the Hawks' football department.

As the club awaits guidance from its star forward regarding his complex calendar of treatment, the tentative plan is that Roughead will work with either the Hawks coaches or recruiters. The view at Hawthorn is that Roughead should remain as fully occupied as his treatment allows.

His active interest in recruiting is considered long term and already sees him closely follow the science undertaken by American football and other overseas sports in the area of player selection and list management.

Hawthorn senior staffers on Wednesday said they remained largely in the dark regarding just how the team would perform at the MCG on Friday night in a game that suddenly seemed less important but might well prove a welcome relief.

Nonetheless the observation came from one of them as the players and coaches moved into planning mode that they couldn't help but feel a little strange preparing for a game of football.