Hawthorn dismantle dispirited Crows
Adelaide head into the bye with their finals aspirations in tatters after suffering their fourth consecutive loss to a rampant Hawthorn, who took hold of the game after a scrappy first half to thrash the Crows by 56 points.
The Hawks kicked seven unanswered goals in the third quarter and the Crows were left rifling through their tools to reset their collective minds, but they could not find them.
It was a dispirited performance from the Crows, who were returning to the MCG for the first time since they were embarrassed in last year's grand final by Richmond.
They were held scoreless in a quarter for just the seventh time in their history when they lost their way in the third term. Their final score of 4.6 (30) was their lowest since they scored 24 points against St Kilda in round 18, 2011 – a loss that led to Neil Craig being sacked.
With many of their key players missing there are some reasons for the drop off but with West Coast, Richmond and Geelong to follow the bye they are little chance of recovering in time to make a charge at the eight.
By contrast, Hawthorn showed the benefits of the bye, rebooting with run and dare to celebrate the 350-game milestone of champion Shaun Burgoyne, who celebrated the win with a goal in the final quarter that thrilled the fans.
However it was the defensive duo of Jack Gunston and James Sicily who turned the match for the Hawks, which had managed just three goals in the first half.
The pair kicked the first two goals of the third quarter to show their forwards how it was done and from that point on Hawthorn dominated, hammering the Crows into submission with a combination of pressure and sharp ball use to kick nine goals to one in the second half.
Sicily ended the third quarter with three goals and was part of a backline that did not let the Crows out of their defensive end despite the absence of premiership defender James Frawley, who was a late withdrawal due to a migraine, and was replaced by Kaiden Brand.
The Hawks fluid play in the third quarter was in complete contrast to the first half, which was more like hessian than silk, with skills down and ball movement fractured.
After half-time however the Hawks made better use of their dominance at centre clearances with their midfield finding space in front of the congestion and creating deep entries.
Tom Mitchell distributed to the Hawks' runners in Jaeger O'Meara, Liam Shiels and Jarman Impey and they made Adelaide pay.
One of the reason the play had been scrappy early was that the Hawks preferred to use pressure forwards in Will Langford, Paul Puopolo and Taylor Duryea ahead of the ball.
With Jarryd Roughead playing a sacrificial role that saw him drag All-Australian defender Daniel Talia up the ground and away from the fall of the ball packs formed at the fall of the ball and it was hard to find space.
The pressure did stop the Crows, which were struggling to move the ball from defence to attack without Rory Laird to run the ball from the back half and they looked a pale imitation of the team that made it to the Grand Final last season, but it also made the game hard to watch.
Miskicks, confusing decisions, erratic handballs defined the first half with just six goals kicked, the two teams recording their lowest combined score in a first quarter since 2003 when 25 points were kicked.
Despite the presence of Taylor Walker, Eddie Betts, Luke Breust and Jarryd Roughead, it was Adelaide ruckman Sam Jacobs who was the leading goalkicker on the ground at half-time with two majors next to his name, the first goals he had kicked for the season.
Jacobs remained the Crows' leading goalkicker for the night as the Crows finally kicked their fourth goal at the 10-minute mark of the last quarter.
Walker is struggling and Betts only kicked one goal.
The Hawks are back on track and a realistic chance to make finals whereas the Crows looked bereft of confidence and are playing like an anxious and agitated team.
HAWTHORN 2.5 3.9 10.11 12.16 (88)
ADELAIDE 1.2 3.5 3.5 4.8 (32)
GOALS
Hawthorn: Sicily 3, Puopolo, Smith, Hardwick, Breust, Shiels, Ceglar, Gunston, Roughead, Burgoyne.
Adelaide: Jacobs 2, Betts, Jenkins.
BEST
Hawthorn: Sicily, Mitchell, Breust, O'Meara, Gunston, Shiels, Ceglar.Adelaide: Gibbs, Crouch, Milera, Betts.
INJURIES
Hawthorn: Frawley (migraine) replaced in selected side by Brand.
Adelaide: Gibson (hamstring), Seedsman (hip).
UMPIRES
Stevic, O'Gorman, Stephens, Chamberlain.
CROWD
26,693 at the MCG.
VOTES
James Sicily (Hawthorn) 8
Tom Mitchell (Hawthorn) 8
Luke Breust (Hawthorn) 7
Jaeger O'Meara (Hawthorn) 7
Jack Gunston (Hawthorn) 7