Hawthorn edge out Port Adelaide, end losing streak
If Hawthorn make anything of their 2018 season, their players and coaching staff might look back on the final moments of round 11 versus Port Adelaide at Launceston and ponder how important they really were.
It was a close one, all day. A couple of missed opportunities to close out the contest late, a throw-in, a spoil, a clearing kick ... these were the small increments that went toward the win.
Hawthorn hung on to win by three points, but after three defeats in a row, a six-day break and up against a team coming off the bye, it was a critical victory.
Alastair Clarkson’s team loves the chilly, wind-swept Launceston’s University of Tasmania Stadium and they registered their 30th win in the past 33 games at the ground.
Port jumped the Hawks through the dynamism of Robbie Gray up forward, kicking the first four goals of the game with the advantage of the breeze that favoured the northern end all day.
Turnovers killed Hawthorn’s momentum, notably a butchered James Frawley kick that ended up in an easy Gray goal and another poor inboard pass by Jarman Impey.
But gradually, steadily Hawthorn worked their way back through Tom Mitchell’s snout for the football around the middle, through Shaun Burgoyne’s ageless class and the sweeping ability of James Sicily across half-back.
Burgoyne, the league’s oldest player at 35, is on his sixth consecutive one-year contract but wants another for 2019, and he may well get it. He started in the hub against his former team, had 26 disposals including 15 contested possessions and nine clearances and kicked an important goal in the third quarter when the Hawks found their way to the ascendancy.
It’s the Indigenous round and Burgoyne is the chair of the AFL’s Indigenous Advisory Board, as well as being a proud Aboriginal man. He is a marvel, and not even his first-quarter report for rough conduct distracted him from his mission. “He’s so old, but he’s so good,’’ said Sicily of his teammate, summing it up bluntly.
The Hawks won the inside 50 count 59 to 38 to show a dominance in overall play and the right to win the game. But in the end, they were a tad lucky as well. Kicking down-breeze in the final quarter they secured a goal from a questionable free kick to Luke Breust against Port’s Darcy Byrne-Jones.
Then after Port regained the lead at the 19-minute mark after Gray climbed above bigger men for a pack mark and his fourth goal, the Hawks found the winner through captain Jarryd Roughead, tackled high by Tom Clurey at point-blank range, 23 minutes in. It was the skipper’s only goal all day but hugely significant.
For five more minutes they thrust and parried, Gunston (from a highly debateable deliberate out-of-bounds call by umpire Matthew Nicholls against Port’s Dougal Howard), Breust (who hit the post) and Jarman Impy missing set shots that might have eased Clarkson’s nerves in his 450th game as a player-coach.
Eventually the siren beat them all. In a game that was not pretty, both teams had big numbers back when they defended at one end, meaning that the ‘bombed’ kick was a diabolical failure.
Port lost no friends on the day. Coach Ken Hinkley originally sent Sam Powell-Pepper to mind the prolific Mitchell in the middle but after the Hawk gathered the ball 21 times and kicked two goals in the first half, it was Tom Rockliff who was required to do the job. Rockliff fared much better, and it helped Port’s cause, but Mitchell was a highly influential player yet again.
As was Sicily, who had a game-high 11 intercept possessions, he is a revelation as a defender. He acknowledges that in a zone set-up he can be caught out, and his primary opponent Jack Watts kicked three goals to show for that, but he is highly damaging with the ball with his offensive mindset.
Cyril Rioli is set to return for the Hawks’ next game against Adelaide.
HAWTHORN 1.2 5.3 7.7 9.10 (64)
PORT ADELAIDE 5.2 5.3 6.6 9.7 (61)
Goals: Hawthorn Hawks: B McEvoy 2 T Mitchell 2 J Impey J Roughead L Breust P Puopolo S Burgoyne. Port Adelaide: R Gray 4 J Watts 3 C Dixon J Westhoff.
Best: Hawthorn: Burgoyne, Sicily, Mitchell, McEvoy, Shiels, Howe. Port Adelaide: R Gray, Wines, Westhoff, Motlop, Watts, Polec.
Umpires: Mathew Nicholls, Brendan Hosking, Hayden Gavine.
Official Crowd: 13,007 at University of Tasmania Stadium
Votes:
Shaun Burgoyne (Haw) 8
James Sicily (Haw) 7
Robbie Gray (Port) 7
Tom Mitchell (Haw) 7
Ollie Wines (Port) 7