The Hawks have been on a roll of late. Since Round Eight, their only loss was by one point to Port Adelaide. Conversely, Geelong’s form has been mixed over the same period, but they appeared to turn a corner last week with a big win over Essendon. Geelong came into the round 5th on the ladder on 36 points, and with this season being so open, the Hawks found themselves in 13th with only one fewer win. Geelong were hoping to jump into the top 4, while the Hawks could have replaced the Cats in 5th position on the ladder with a big enough win. It was all there to play for.
There were some big outs for the Hawks with James Sicily unable to overcome a dislocated shoulder (his second of the season) and both Jack Ginnivan and Calsher Dear also out of what had become a very dangerous front six. With no obvious replacement for Sicily, there were question marks over the Hawks defence coming into this one, but Lewis and Bruest could be considered able replacements for Dear and Ginnivan. For the Cats, Ollie Henry returned from injury (as the sub) but otherwise they were largely unchanged from the win over Essendon.
The Cats started the game with a bang, with the Hawks unable to move the ball past halfway. Unfortunately, the Cats didn’t convert this to scoreboard pressure with only five behinds, however, it proved to be the trend the game would follow throughout the day. The Hawks were unable to transition from defensive 50, time and time again Geelong created turnovers on the wing and banged the ball back inside their 50 for scoring shots.
In a game where both teams were looking to make statements about their finals credentials, it was Geelong who came away with a very convincing win. There were some interesting takeaways from this game, so let’s get stuck in:
The Kittens:
Every season I look at the Geelong team and think “surely this is the year they miss finals. They’re just too old” and every year they prove me wrong. Not only are the veterans still playing good footy, but Geelong seem to have this ability to pluck players seemingly from nowhere, and they are able to come in more than just play a role.
Geelong played five young players in this game, each coming into the club from different pathways, and each playing a role in the win today. Ollie Dempsey is 21 and was plucked from the rookie draft – he patrolled the wings today and provides some genuine speed and X factor. He’d have to be in the conversation for the rising star at this stage. Shaun Mannagh came in, having been taken at pick 36 in the draft at the mature age of 26. He laid 14 tackles today, five of which were inside 50, and had eight score involvements amongst his 20 possessions – a great outing in just his third career game at the level. Shannon Neale has played just 11 games before today, he is 21 and a seriously big unit who has been hiding on this list since being taken with pick 33 back in 2020. He had five marks and kicked 2.2, providing a real target up forward and looking every bit like the natural replacement for Tomahawk. Lawson Humphries is 21 and was taken with pick 63 in the draft. In his second career game, he looked assured off halfback with 17 disposals and is a genuinely two-footed player – a rarity these days. And finally you have Jhye Clark who is 19 years old and played his 15th game today, picking up 18 possessions as part of the midfield rotation.
With these five players, we saw a glimpse into the future for Geelong as some of their veterans enter the twilight of their careers, and while they may not find every game as easy they found it today, they were all able to impact the game in different ways. The future looks good for Geelong.
The Brick Wall
My last review was the Hawks v Richmond game in Round 14, and I waxed lyrical about the back six of Hawthorn and how Richmond just could not find a way through. Sicily, Scrimshaw and Weddle really took the piss in that game, pushing high up the ground and intercepting Richmond’s exit kicks at will. Today, it was the Geelong back six showing the Hawks that they can play this game too. Stewart (who also had stints in the midfield), Guthrie, Duncan and Kolodjashnij (had to look up how to spell that correctly) combined for over 30 intercept possessions between them as the Hawks just could not find a way through. On the few occasions the Hawks managed to get over the halfway line in the first half, they were met by the Geelong wall.
The Hawks were forced into slow ball movement around the wings which stifled their ability to move forward quickly. They had zero marks inside 50 in the first quarter, compared to Geelong’s seven, and if not for Geelong’s inaccuracy the game would have well and truly been over at quarter time.
Sam Mitchell seemed perfectly happy to allow Geelong to have +1 behind the ball, using the Hawks spare closer to the stoppage, but it wasn’t working, and I was a little bit miffed he never really seemed to change it. It was clear the Hawks could not move the ball effectively into 50, and perhaps evening up the numbers ahead of them would have made a difference? Conversely, the Hawks defence was consistently exposed playing one on one today, although the volume of turnovers while trying to exit D50 really did them no favours. Is Sicily the most important player at Hawthorn? They certainly missed him today.
The Ruck Battle
I was intrigued by this one today. SDK has been thrown into the ruck in recent weeks out of necessity, but has been pretty good in the role (aside from being absolutely pantsed by his brother in the Carlton game). Meek has put together an impressive season so far that has seen him discussed as the heir apparent to the Gawn/Grundy AA ruck position. They play very differently, with Meek like a man mountain and SDK a little more athletic around the ground.
Meek’s tap work really stood out in this one – he had a whopping 47 hitouts for the game which went some way towards the Hawks being able to level up the clearance numbers as the game wore on. SDK ended with 20 disposals, but he was also able to get away from Meek when they both pushed into 50 to kick 2 goals.
So who got the chocolates? I guess it depends what you value more in a ruckman. Meek’s tap work was head and shoulders above SDK (or Blicavs when he floated through there), but SDK was able to contribute more effectively around the ground and impact the scoreboard with 2 goals. For mine, the chocolates go to SDK today, as although Meek was dominant in hitouts, it did very little to help Hawthorn win the game.
The gameplan:
I was really baffled with Sam Mitchell in this one. The Hawks gameplan in the first half seemed to be to consistently exit D50 to the same wing and hope that one of their talls could take a contested mark. It was clearly not working, with the Cats having 5 scoring shots in the first 5 minutes of the game, all coming from turnovers on that wing.
At halftime, Mitchell was interviewed by Cam Mooney who asked him if the Hawks would look to take the ball off the line a little more in attempt to find a way through the Geelong defence. Mitchell essentially said no, and that they just need to win more contests. You could have knocked me down with a feather!
To be fair, the Cats were doing a good job of not allowing the Hawks to use the corridor, and the few times they did try and change the angle, the ball was turned over. But when you are nearly six goals down at halftime surely you need to admit that what you are doing is not working and try something else? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, and I felt like I was going insane watching the Hawks turn the ball over from a long kick to the wing over and over again.
Between this, and the fact that Mitchell allowed the Cats to play a spare in defence for much of the first half, it felt like the game was partly lost in the coaches box.
Other bits:
Loved the game from “The Wizard” today. He was constantly applying pressure and was probably a little unlucky not to get more reward from his three tackles inside 50. In fact, all the Hawks forwards tried hard in this regard today with Moore adding three tackles inside 50 himself, and Chol adding another chase down tackle to his season in the first quarter.
A Hawks supporting mate mentioned he heard a stat this week that Chol leads the league for tackles inside 50 this season – while I was unable to find this exact stat at the time of writing, I did note that he is in the top 10 for tackles inside 50 out of all AFL players, and at the conclusion of this game was second for tackles inside 50 amongst key forwards – he’s been a great pick up for the Hawks.
Dylan Moore must surely be in for a small forward position in the AA team. Another great game today, he led the Hawks for score involvements and in the second quarter I noted he had two direct score assists in 2 minutes. You want the ball in his hands for the all important kick into 50!
What is going on with the holding the ball rule? They seemed to get it right for two weeks, but now it is back to its inconsistent best, with several missed call for both teams in this game (and across the weekend). The AFL will tell you the umpiring is the best it has ever been, but I refuse to believe that until we can get some consistency.
And that’ll do me. A convincing win for the Cats in the end, really taking advantage of their home ground. But there is still plenty to like in this young Hawks team, and while they may not make finals this season, I don’t think it will be long before they are in the 8. Perhaps a key defender needs to be added in the off season as Sicily was sorely missed today.
