Hawk says centrists are not present (4)
I believe the answer is:
away
'not present' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'hawk says centrists are' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'are' could be 'a' (short for 'are', historical unit of measurement) and 'a' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'way' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for away that I've seen before include "Elsewhere" , "Non-home match" , "Not at home, somewhere else" , "Like some fixtures" , "On vacation" .)