Can we jump back in time a few months, or so, and revisit Opening Round? Remember what happened that cyclone-affected start to the 2025 AFL season?
The Hawks looked slick, as they knocked over th 2024 Grand Finalists, the Sydney Swans, and Collingwood were handled easily by a GWS team that made them look slow and, at times, foolish.
It’s been a while since a team made Collingwood look that way, and it’s also been a while since the Hawks flexed some muscles.
But both things occurred simultaneously in Round 22, and it has got many people looking at how the final eight may now take shape.
The Pies have lost four of their last five, but their other losses were not like this. This was a pounding. It is rare that a team will clearly win on both the inside and outside, whilst holding a significant advantage both forward and back.
And yet, here we are, with the Hawks making Collingwood look the exact way people described them after that loss to GWS, first up.
Old and slow, remember?
I sure as hell do, and it was those words that sprung to mind as I watched Hawthorn midfield tear the Pies to ribbons.
After a sickening collision between Jai Newcombe and Jeremy Howe sent the Collingwood defender to hospital, it was as though shockwaves ripped through the Magpie team.
Running up and down on the one spot, Collingwood could not generate any fast ball movement, and were obliterated on turnover.
Remember when the TAC sponsored Collingwood, and they had that “speed kills” campaign?
It killed Collingwood in this one.
Speed killed them.
Power killed them.
Run killed them.
Hawthorn killed them.
Time to jump into The Mongrel’s Big Questions from this one.
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