The Western Bulldogs came to Adelaide Oval as the only remaining undefeated team, with four wins from four starts. They left with their first loss, their second ruck in as many weeks on the injury list, and enough to think about on the flight home to keep Luke Beveridge from enjoying his time wandering around McLaren Vale.
Hawthorn were simply better as a unit. Their midfield linked up better, their delivery into the forward 50 was better, and their aggression at the ball was better. They led from the first score to the last, in a performance that should make the rest of the competition sit up and take the Hawks very seriously indeed. For the Bulldogs, the result adds questions to their depth as the injury report does not bode well for the coming challenges ahead, and their star midfield was exposed by a determined Hawthorn outfit.
Recent form
Hawthorn (3-1): Dropped the opener to GWS and then got on with things in the manner of someone who has knocked over a coffee, cleaned it up, and refused to talk about it again. Three straight since then, including an Easter Monday thriller over Geelong that announced their top four credentials in unmistakable terms. Newcombe is playing the best football of his life. The backline is organised. They are, right now, a very tidy football team.
Western Bulldogs (4-0): Brisbane, GWS, Adelaide and Essendon dispatched in the first four rounds. The unbeaten run was genuinely impressive, and the manner of some of those wins even more so. The Essendon game in Round 4 did give a small glimpse of a blueprint, with the Bombers sitting deep and making life harder than usual. The Dogs still won comfortably, but the question going into Gather Round was whether a quality opponent could execute that plan better. I have been a big fan of how the Bulldogs have played so far, but Hawthorn answered that pretty conclusively.
Ins and Outs
Hawthorn
In: Karl Amon, Cam Mackenzie
Out: Jack Dalton (omitted), Jack Scrimshaw (managed)
Amon and Mackenzie were both touch and go after picking up knee complaints prior to the Easter Monday win over Geelong, which is actually a fairly light result from what is usually a bruising Cats v Hawks encounter. Both passed their Thursday training tests, which would have reassured supporters. Amon in particular is one of those players who quietly does a lot of things well and creates problems when he’s absent. Dalton made way, Scrimshaw got a rest.
The longer-term issue for Hawthorn is Will Day, still 6-7 weeks out with a shoulder complaint. A half-back of his quality is hard to replace, and his absence is the one thing on the Hawthorn injury list that would actually keep you up at night if you were a Hawks fan.
Western Bulldogs
In: Harvey Gallagher, Louis Emmett (debut), Ed Richards, Cooper Hynes
Out: Tim English (knee), Tom Liberatore (hamstring), Lachie McNeil (omitted), Arthur Jones (hamstring)
Right here is where the game turned against the Dogs. With Tim English out with an MCL knee injury picked up on Easter Sunday, it meant Louis Emmett came in to make his AFL debut in the ruck against Ned Reeves and Lloyd Meek at Gather Round. If you’re Emmett, you’re excited and terrified in roughly equal measure. If you’re anyone else associated with the Bulldogs, you’re mainly just terrified. Emmett is a capable footballer who has served his time at Footscray, but debuting against that ruck combination is the sort of challenge you’d hesitate to give a seasoned campaigner, let alone a first-gamer. They say big guys take time to mature, but at 19, he’s still going to need a lot more seasoning before he’s suiting up as an impactful ruckman. Probably needs to get on the protein too. I know the AFL doesn’t publish weights any more, but he looks like he’d benefit from a few extra servings of Mum’s Sunday lamb roast and a few weekends spent at the Liberatores house. You just know no one is visiting the old man’s house and not leaving unless they’re properly fed.
Speaking of Libba, Tom Liberatore being out with a hamstring is the next problem. Libba has been the unsung motor of this midfield all season, and without him the burden on Bontempelli, Richards and Kennedy becomes considerably heavier. He’s also the bloke they turn to when they need their poster boy mids to get some space from their opponent. With Tom in the stands, the others were always going to get a bit more of the rough stuff.
Ed Richards passed his fitness tests, which is something close to a minor miracle given he also hurt his knee on Easter Sunday. Initial reports had him in serious doubt. He was cleared and named. The optimism in that decision will either look brave or questionable by the end of the night, and we’ll come back to that.
Arthur Jones remains unavailable, McNeil misses on omission, and this is already shaping as a Bulldogs side that is asking several players to do things that are not quite their natural job.
One genuinely nice note before all the carnage: today is Sam Darcy’s 50th AFL game. A milestone for a 22-year-old who has looked like a genuine star for most of them.
The Start
Jack Gunston kicked the first goal inside five minutes, because of course he did. At 34, Gunston continues to be a living, kicking rebuke to every young forward in the competition who claims they need more time to find their feet. The Hawks were sharp and purposeful from the bounce, with Newcombe already collecting clearances at a rate that made you wonder if there was a bonus structure attached.
Jai Newcombe had four clearances before the quarter was half done, and the Bulldogs’ midfield had the look of a kindergartener being asked who broke Mum’s vase while they had a footy in their hand. The Dogs did get two back through Sam Darcy, because Darcy is the sort of bloke who finds a way to influence games even on bad days, and Mitch Lewis kicked two himself to give Hawthorn a comfortable lead by the first break. Lewis must be one of the most frustrating players for Hawks fans. He can look a million bucks one week, and a million miles from it the next, assuming he’s healthy enough to stay on the park.
The stat that told the real story of the first quarter, though, was the hitouts. Reeves had nine to his name before the quarter ended, and the Hawks won the hitouts 19-5 by quarter time, which is not a number you want to see if you’re wearing red, white and blue. Emmett, while giving it a red hot crack, just looked out of his depth against the combination of Reeves and Meek, two ruckmen that I personally rate as well above average, even if they’re not quite at the top level.
The second quarter was where Hawthorn really put the boots in. They controlled possession in a way that reminded me of the Clarkson era at Hawthorn. They fought to control the ball and held their structure to get the ball away from the contest quickly. At one point mid-quarter they’d had 97 disposals to the Bulldogs’ 58, which is really a result of everyone playing their role, with the inside, outside, and link-up players all keeping their structure and letting their teammates do their job. They took 38 uncontested marks in the half to 13, with eight marks inside 50 in the second quarter compared to one for the Dogs, and their nine hitouts to advantage in the half compared to zero for the Bulldogs tells you everything about where first use was going. Lobb pinch-hit to help Emmett, but it looks like Beverige is willing to let his rookie get a taste of where he needs to be.
Gunston kicked his second, Weddle slotted one, Meek added his own. The Bulldogs had zero goals for the quarter. By halftime, Hawthorn led 47-19 and had led for every single second of the game. The Bulldogs had been in front for zero minutes and zero seconds of the 56 that had elapsed, which is the kind of statistic that sounds like it should be technically impossible and yet here we are.
Massimo D’Ambrosio was exceptional for Hawthorn in that half, finishing with 431 metres gained at the break, which some players don’t accumulate across an entire game. Sicily and Hardwick were calm and authoritative out the back. Newcombe had eight clearances from his 13 disposals at halftime and was the best player on the ground.
For the Dogs, Bontempelli had 12 disposals and 293 metres gained, but zero goals and not much in the way of clearance impact. Richards had worked hard across the half. The rest of the midfield had mostly been outmuscled. And Naughton had two disposals. Two. He’d touched the ball twice, mostly due to lack of supply.
If the first quarter was Hawthorn establishing dominance, the second was them sending the Bulldogs into the chair at the foot of the hotel bed while they invited their missus over.
The one concern for Hawthorn was Mabior Chol limping off with a hamstring concern in the first quarter and not returning, which might impact their forward structure in the next month or so.
The Bulldogs need something extraordinary in the second half. They need Bont to find another gear, Naughton to lead harder, and their rebound from half back to generate quicker movement. Hawthorn just needed to finish the job.
The second half
The Dogs came out of the rooms after halftime and, credit to them, they came out swinging. Freijah kicked the first goal of the third quarter, but a the Dogs struggled to use their momentum. Moore, Watson and Ginnivan all kicked majors before Dolan, Gallagher, and Hynes converted and the Bulldogs actually won the third quarter by a goal, four to three. Which sounds like progress until you remember they were still five goals down at the time, making it the sort of minor victory you celebrate while still losing the argument.
Bontempelli started the quarter with five disposals in four minutes, like a man who had received very specific instructions at the break and was absolutely committed to following them. He then had one disposal for the rest of the quarter. Whatever the message was, the battery ran out around the twelve-minute mark.
Hawthorn’s response to the Dogs’ third-quarter surge was telling. They didn’t panic. They didn’t change a great deal. They just kept doing what they’d been doing, winning the ball at ground level in their defensive half, keeping their structure tidy, and trusting the forward line to do the rest when the ball eventually arrived. Moore kicked a nice one, Watson got on the board, Ginnivan set one up. The lead stayed well beyond comfortable, and by the time the three-quarter siren sounded the Dogs needed something extraordinary in the last term.
The finish
They didn’t get it.
Lewis kicked his third, Moore slotted his second, Newcombe added one of his own, a nice major by Naughton have the dogs a bit of hope, but when Gunston put through his third, Hawthorn just knew that had this one beyond doubt. Reeves capped off a dominant game with a goal of his own, because apparently beating the Dogs by forty wasn’t quite satisfying enough and a personal milestone was required to round the night off nicely.
Hawthorn 104, Western Bulldogs 64. Forty points. The last time the Dogs scored this low was the 59-point drubbing Hawthorn handed them in Round 13 last year, and they’ve averaged 106 points a match since then (until now).
For Hawthorn, four wins on the trot now, three of them against genuine flag threats in Sydney, Geelong and the last unbeaten team in the competition. That is not a soft run, and they are not taking soft wins. The comp can’t underestimate them and expect it to turn out well.
Injury concerns
Nothing on the field to talk about here. The controversy was in the injury reports, and it was plenty.
Mabior Chol went off with a hamstring in the first quarter and didn’t come back. For a bloke who gives Hawthorn genuine pace and the ability to stretch a defensive structure, it’s not ideal, though the scoreline suggests his absence didn’t exactly derail the gameplan.
The bigger one, though, is Ed Richards. He rushed back from a knee complaint sustained on Easter Sunday, was named, was cleared, was praised for his commitment, and then came off in the fourth quarter. Initially, I feared it was the same knee, but it was later revealed to be an ankle issue. At 26, playing the best football of his career, midway through a season where he was building a real Brownlow case, this is not a small inconvenience. The Bulldogs already had English out with an MCL. If Richards is now looking at weeks rather than days, Beveridge is going to need to do some very creative list management with what’s left. The bloke’s body has had a rough fortnight and the week ahead isn’t going to feel much better.
Midfield matchup
Hawthorn took this, and it wasn’t close.
Newcombe finished with 14 clearances from 28 disposals, a line that belongs in a museum. He is currently playing like a man who absorbed every Sam Mitchell training drill ever filmed and has spent the summer trying to implement all of them simultaneously. Ginnivan worked all night as a distributor, accumulating 28 disposals, five goal assists and nine score involvements without particularly needing to be a scorer himself. Sicily finished with 24 disposals and 496 metres gained, Hardwick had 25 and 279 metres gained, and D’Ambrosio ended the game with an extraordinary 653 metres gained from 21 disposals. That half-back line generated clean ball consistently, and the midfield used it.
For the Dogs, the numbers look reasonable at first glance and then start to unravel. Bontempelli had 26 disposals and 723 metres gained, which sounds like a dominant game until you look at his two clearances. The Bont’s whole value is in winning contested ball and getting his team going. He was neutralised in a way he rarely is, and when he’s neutralised, the supply to the forward line dries up. Ryley Sanders had 25 disposals and was one of their better contributors, but was a bit scrappy with his long kicks. Richards managed 22 disposals and 480 metres gained before coming off. Kennedy had nine disposals. The midfield was always going to be missing something with English and Libba out, but it ended up missing more than that.
The inside 50 count across the whole game was nearly even, 54 to 53 in Hawthorn’s favour. The Bulldogs were getting the ball forward, but it was often under pressure and to a defence that had time to set up and counter.
I really wish we had gotten to see Newcombe vs Liberatore. Those two have a similar style of play, and I really like watching them both. I’d give Newcombe the edge in skill of execution, but Libba is just as relentless and more than willing to commit his body to winning the ball. Ah well, you can’t have everything.
Ruck Battle
Look, I’m going to keep this brief because the scoreboard says everything, and it’s not really fair to pick on a debutant. Plus, having him out there was probably not part of his development plan anyway, so it’s more like he’s the fill-in than someone they expected to be a significant contributor at this stage of his career.
Hawthorn won the hitouts 64-17. Reeves had 40 of those, Meek had 24. Emmett, on debut without English to share the load, did his best and got five. The margin in the taps filtered through everything else, the clearances, the forward entries, the contested marks, the whole game. The Dogs won the centre clearances 15-9, which is a real quirk and probably reflects the Bont and co. being good enough at a throw-up to win it even without first use. But the stoppage clearances went Hawthorn’s way 34-16, and that’s where the actual damage was done.
Reeves even kicked a goal to cap his night off, because why leave anything on the table? Emmett gets credit for fronting up to a genuinely rough assignment, but the chocolates go to Reeves.
The Stats that Sting
- Jack Ginnivan: 10 Score Invovlements. Say what you want about this kid, but his delivery into the forward 50 this match was sublime. He picked out his forwards with lace-out precision. Even though he only had one goal for himself (and it was a bit of a cheeky one), I think this is the most impressive I’ve seen him in the brown and gold.
- The Bulldogs had zero seconds with the lead across 120 minutes of football. Not one second.
- Hitouts: Hawthorn 64, Western Bulldogs 17. In the second quarter alone, Hawthorn had nine hitouts to advantage while the Dogs had zero. This is what happens when a debutant is asked to go head-to-head with two experienced AFL rucks who are each approximately the size of an antique wardrobe, while Emmett is more of an Ikea flat pack at this age.
- Contested marks: Hawthorn 19, Western Bulldogs 8. Gunston and Lewis were marking inside 50 with the ease of blokes who’ve been doing it since before some of the Bulldogs’ players could legally drink.
- Bontempelli: 26 disposals, 726 metres gained, 2 clearances. He ran everywhere and arrived nowhere particularly useful. It was like watching someone spend four hours reorganising a shed and still not being able to find the drill.
- Ed Richards: 22 disposals, 480 metres gained, off in the fourth quarter with apparent ankle damage. On top of English, Libba and Jones are already out. The Bulldogs’ injury list is beginning to look less like bad luck and more like a recurring theme.
- Tackles inside 50: Hawthorn 25, Bulldogs 6. That is incredibly painful. For a club that prides itself on their blue collar work ethic, six tackles in their defensive 50 is just horrible, but it’s not all the fault of the defence. It’s hard to bring the ball to ground when the delivery inside 50 has such speed and space to choose. Pressure up the ground would have helped this stat.
Debutant watch
I’ve talked enough about Louis Emmett’s debut. It won’t be one that gives him many highlights, but it needs to be stressed that this isn’t the timing they’d have wanted for him.
He worked hard. He ran, he leapt, he chased… and he got the absolute suitcase beaten out of him by two big blokes who like nothing more than yeeting their opposition player across the grass.
He’ll be better for the run. Hopefully under slightly less demanding circumstances next time, assuming English can get back before they need to ruck against the likes of Gawn, Briggs or Xerri, who like a bit of the heavyweight tussle more than most.
Final thoughts
The unbeaten run had to end eventually, and losing to a very good Hawthorn side while missing your ruck, your engine suffering a missing cylinder and a misfire, is an understandable way for it to happen.
The injury list is the crisis. English, Liberatore, Jones, Richards potentially again. That’s a lot of the Bulldogs’ best football players unavailable in the same two-week stretch, and the next month of fixtures is not going to wait for any of them to come back. Beveridge has shown he can coach a side through adversity before, but this is a fairly significant test of that.
Hawthorn should be the story of the night. Sam Mitchell has built a team that is structured, versatile, hard to score against and capable of playing with the lead without becoming passive. They’ve now beaten three genuine contenders in a row without looking particularly panicked by the task or the moment. If you wrote them off after the opening round loss to GWS, now is a good time to revise that assessment.
Next up
The Western Bulldogs head to GMHBA Stadium on Friday night to face Geelong. The selection table at the Kennel this week is going to look like a game of Jenga played by someone in a hurry. English is gone, Libba is gone, Jones is gone, and Richards is now a question mark again, and if they’re serious about playing finals, they should probably make certain he’s not going to risk a longer sideline stint.
Geelong, at their home fortress, is not the gentle fixture the Dogs need while they’re rebuilding their available list. The Cats will be motivated and organised. Before English going down, I’d have put the Dogs in the box seat here, but on current form, I’ll lean Geelong. Cats by 24.
Hawthorn take on Port Adelaide at Marvel on Saturday in a game that will tell us a fair bit about both sides. Port have quality through the middle and a new coaching regime that is still finding its best shape. Hawthorn have momentum, confidence and a midfield playing as well as any in the competition. On paper, it’s Hawthorn all day, but this could be the sort of danger game where a team that’s had such big scalps can look past a mid-tier opponent.
I wouldn’t bet on it, though. Hawthorn by 43.
