Hawthorn Hawks

The AFL player shuffle continued with these changes occurring in late October:

Sydney has delisted utility Dean Towers, Jordan Foote, Angus Styles, Jake Brown, Daniel Robinson and Harry Marsh, Towers, 28, was a first-round draft pick as a mature-aged player out of the VFL in 2012 and played 57 games in six seasons. Foote played just six games in four years

(Ed. note: This story is club by club for easier scrolling to the team(s) of interest. For the earlier posts in this series: Part 1 and Part 2.)

BRISBANE

Defender Liam Dawson has been delisted by Brisbane. Dawson, 22, played 18 games for the Lions in four years. He played only one game in the past two seasons but failed to add to that tally in 2018. Rohan Bewick, Claye Beams, Jake Barrett, Marco Paparone and Tom Bell have also been delisted while Cian Hanley has retired.

Bewick, the nephew of former Essendon 1993 and 2000 premiership player Darren, played 103 games for the Lions in eight seasons. Bewick, 28, celebrated his 100th AFL game milestone in 2017 and kicked 71 goals for the Lions throughout his career. In 2018,, he played three senior games.

It was a rampant Melbourne football club that moved the ball quickly and deliberately in attack and were well organized and efficient in defense that earned a Preliminary Final berth next week in Perth with a 33-point win over Hawthorn where they will face the West Coast Eagles. The Demons were heavy favorites based mainly on momentum, but it was Schoenmakers that drew first blood for the Hawks in the first minute of the game.

Finally after a week off, finals footy was underway in Melbourne. Hawthorn came hard at Richmond from the start of the match but eventually the Tigers won the pressure battle. Once they took hold they were able to get the ball inside 50 much more often and make the most of it even when the Hawks managed to bring the ball to ground. They broke the game open in the third quarter and cruised to victory in the final quarter and will now sit back and wait for their Preliminary Final opponent.

Richmond Tigers vs Hawthorn Hawks (MCG)

State of Play:

This game has all the makings of an absolute classic. On one hand you have Richmond, the reigning premier coming into the game riding a 21-game winning streak at the MCG. On the other you have Hawthorn, the form team of the competition boasting a massive total of 265 games of finals experience (the Tigers have just 114).

Outside it was cold and wintry (by Melbourne standards) but good conditions under the roof at Etihad on Saturday night shielded fans. Inside, it was the Hawks who nearly got the chill. Despite the indoor game, the crowd numbers were down on recent clashes between these two teams. 

Early it was Gunston who opened the scoring for the Hawks. The Saints worked hard around the contests to shut down Hawthorn's run and delivery into the forward link.  Burgoyne finally managed to eke out a second for the Hawks.  St Kilda had plenty of the ball, but not a lot of it in their forward 50.

The Hawthorn Hawks boosted their campaign to make the 2018 finals by convincingly defeating the Fremantle Dockers. In a one-sided game the Hawks picked up valuable percentage points (based on scores kicked for and against) that could prove vital at the end of the season. The Dockers, who were already out of finals calculations, had a game where little worked for them and as they repeatedly butchered forays into their attacking zone. In contrast, the Hawks were brutal when required to contest the ball, swooped on any errors made by the rattled Dockers and clinical in their forward thrusts.

In the absence of Aaron Sandilands, Fremantle’s Luke Darcy competed well in the ruck with The Hawk’s big man, Jonathan Ceglar. Hit-out honors were even, which resulted in Lachie Neale and David Mundy matching Hawthorn’s Tom Mitchell and Jaegar O’Meara with center clearances. However, once the Dockers cleared the ball from packs, they lacked the purpose and pure intent of Hawthorn. Hawthorn would routinely work the ball wide and then make a direct assault on the full-forward zone. If Jarryd Roughead was covered, Luke Breust was available for a chip pass, Ryan Schoenmakers was setting himself to fly, or Jack Gunston was lurking at the back of a pack. The Hawks simply had too many forward weapons for the Dockers to cover. 

In June, Hawk star Cyril Rioli was granted indefinite leave by Hawthorn to return to Darwin for family reasons. Just ahead of Round 16, he announced his retirement, effective immediately. He said he had thought about it for the past year and believes he has made the right decision for himself and his family.

In making the announcement, he said,

By Troy Thompson reporting for AFANA, from Etihad Stadium in Melbourne.

Billy Hartung had an early chance to get a goal against his old club, opening the scoring for North Melbourne but could only manage a behind. By the end of the quarter he would be glad to be in his new colors. The opening goal of the match came from Jarrad Waite after two Hawks defenders collided in the air Frawley and Mirra, leaving Waite to clean up and drill it home.

by Troy Thompson, reporting for AFANA from Melbourne

AFLX Round 2 kicked off this evening in Melbourne. The live testing and tweaking of the 7-a-side format continues with the AFL announcing today the will drop the novelty silver footballs used in all but the last three matches of Thursday night's Round 1 at Hindmarsh Stadium in Adelaide.  The remaining AFLX matches will use the more traditional yellow ball used for AFL matches played under lights.

Adelaide were crowned Round 1 premiers at Hindmarsh Stadium in Adelaide on Thursday night.