It was a change of plans down in Tasmania, which saw Hawthorn and North switch time slots to become the first game of the day, but everything else went exactly according to plan for the Hawks.
Whether it was the weather or the bad lighting, this game was a scrap at the start. Both sides struggled with skills which lead to plenty of turnovers and a low score, but it was Hawthorn who held the upper hand. A few clean passages of play led to Hawks goals, while at the other end, North’s poor forward 50 entries saw them only kick one for the term and trail by 21 points at the first break.
In the second, the Hawks started to put the foot down, and commenced their now-trademark running through the corridor. Their pressure was too much for North, while their forwards kept finding plenty of space and kept piling on the score. A Cam Zurhaar goal snapped a streak of six for the Hawks and gave North a little spark which led to another goal, but they still had plenty of work to do come half-time.
The third was more subdue,d as the rain continued to fall and injury started becoming a concern for Hawthorn. But the Hawks were still able to take advantage of North’s defensive lapses to keep pushing out the margin, and hit the triple-figure mark halfway through the term. North kept fighting, but poor skills and indecision continued to let them down while had no answers for the Hawks’ midfield run.
Staring down another possible 100-point loss, all North could do with the last 30 minutes of the season was win the quarter. Yet, the Hawks continued doing as they pleased without so much as a whimper from North. It was all smiles on the bench as the final margin blew out to 124 points for Hawks’ biggest win of the year and their biggest-ever win over North Melbourne.
Can the Hawks actually do this?
Somehow, against all odds, the Hawks are in the 8! After going 0-5 they have not only made finals but are going in as one of the in-form teams of the competition. The massive win was the cherry on top to give them the best possible lead-in to finals thanks to a 7-2 record since their bye with the more recent of those losses being by only 2 points against the top 4 GWS.
Even though their opponent was North, the Hawks simply looked unstoppable. Their pressure in the first half was exactly what you would expect of a side looking to stitch up a finals spot, as they forced North to kick the ball around looking for a way to move forward and several players pouncing on the ball carrier the moment there was an opening. By running in waves there was always a pass on ahead to keep the ball moving, and on the rare occasions there wasn’t, one player was always there to go backwards to and re-set. When kicking forward, the forwards created space for each other to run into and pinpoint kicks meant there was little the defenders could do.
It was a complete game by the Hawks, as at no point did they surrender control of the game over to North. They only gave up back-to-back goals once and won each quarter. Perhaps most impressive was that no matter how far ahead they got, players still always threw their all at the ball to smoother North kicks and keep the tackling pressure up.
And it’s this never-say-die attitude that is what is so enticing about these Hawks. They are moving with such a belief in each other and seem to genuinely enjoy every minute they play together. There’s a saying that it’s not the team of champions who wins the premiership, it’s the champion team, and right now there’s no better team than Hawthorn.
There’s absolutely no reason why they can’t do it.
Today they showed they have no shortage of firepower, with 12 individual goal kickers to notch up a massive 26 goals on a wet day, with Dylan Moore the best of them with four. Massimo D’Ambrosio had a great day, notching 31 disposals along with two goals of his own, while Jai Newcombe was the leading disposal-getter with 35.
Unfortunately they had a few injury concerns late in the game, with Conor Nash needing to be subbed out, and Nick Watson, and James Worpel also getting looked over on the bench. But with the week off before the finals start, they will hopefully all be fine to play.
The Wizard of Promise
Not for the first time this year, Nick Watson was having an almost game. His ability to find space and shake off opponents always leaves jaws dropping, but all year it’s been his goal accuracy that’s let him down. Again today he had 2.2 from shots that should have all been goals. With an injury concern, he can be forgiven for not having much of an impact in the second half, and his fourth-quarter goal was a nice highlight.
While his inaccuracy hasn’t hurt the Hawks too much this season, clearly, finals are a whole other game. You need to make the most of every opportunity, and those Watson misses could start to become costly. It just feels that if the Hawks are to do it, Watson sharpening up his goal kicking is the last piece of the puzzle.
Big questions remain for North
It was an ugly end to another ugly season for North.
Even with nothing to play for (beyond maybe giving the retiring Liam Shiels a good send-off) North fans would have been hoping to see their team finish the year on some sort of positive note and give them something to look forward to over the summer.
Instead, they only got more despair. Despite the commentators’ claims that they weren’t doing a lot wrong, there was plenty to be critical of. Plenty of times players weren’t willing to run to defend, kicks and handballs didn’t go to their targets, and there was very little support. Despite having 89 fewer disposals they only had three more tackles, and they were dominated in clearances 58 to 34.
Even in the last quarter, when Hawthorn were showing signs of playing conservatively, there was no lift from North, who appeared to have already gone on summer holidays. There was no fight, no energy, and no signs of structure or game plan.
When Clarkson came to North it gave the entire club some hope that things were going to improve but after two seasons nothing seems to have changed. The Hawks copped a bit of criticism last year for taking a while to improve but there were some hints there that things were turning around. With North it’s like Groundhog Day.
It’s not quite time to call for Clarkson’s head just yet, but he can not afford another season like this.
The few shining lights
It was a bit of an up and down day for Xerri but he still gave the AA selectors plenty to think about. He was able to take it up to Meek in the ruck battle, and collected 25 disposals, 18 of those contested, and had a game high 13 clearances. On the other hand he also gave away 6 frees and had 4 turnovers, but he was still an overall positive in an otherwise very negative day.
Jy Simpkin also had a few highlights with his three goals including a nice snap in the second quarter. He was the leading fantasy points getter on the ground with 121 thanks to his 25 disposals, 9 tackles, and 5 clearances. Luke Davies-Uniacke also fought hard with 26 disposals but his 10 turnovers let him down.
A slight change of plans
I suspect more than a few people were a bit taken back when they went to put their tips in to see that suddenly this game was the first of the day.
For those who missed it, the game needed to change time slot due to industrial action from electrical workers over a pay dispute, and the AFL wanted to avoid using the floodlights. With the area having a history of outages recently, it seems the AFL didn’t want to risk not having any workers available should there be any issues.
While this was a great contingency plan in theory, the AFL seemed to forget the game was still being played in Tasmania in the middle of winter. The weather didn’t want to play ball and a thick layer of dark clouds still caused lighting issues on the ground. It meant that lighting had to be turned on anyway, but fortunately, there were no problems.
It caused a couple of disruptions though, with Fox Footy’s Cam Mooney not arriving at the ground until partway through the second quarter thanks to his plane being delayed by fog, and the Hawthorn banner also arriving late.
For the Hawks, the real work is just about to begin. They will finish in the bottom half of the top 8 and depending on other results it means a match-up against Brisbane, Bulldogs, Carlton or even Freo. Most likely it will be the Bulldogs though, which would be a massive game to see one of the in-form teams kicked out in the first week. Their last two games have seen Hawks come up the winner, and money says they’ll do it again.
It’s the end of the season for North who finish with three wins just as they did last year and with plenty of work to do in the off-season.