After Hawthorn’s lacklustre performance last week against Collingwood where they only managed 38 tackles for the whole game and only 36 the week before against the Brisbane Lions, the Hawks responded in emphatic fashion against the Western Bulldogs.
They came out firing, racing to a 24-point lead by quarter-time, with the Bulldogs 1.2 (8) to Hawthorn 5.2 (32). In front of just under 36,000 supporters, the Hawks led throughout the whole match and were never headed.
Both sides kicked seven goals apiece after quarter-time, but the early buffer proved enough, as Hawthorn snapped a three-game losing streak with a 22-point win under the roof at Marvel Stadium, with the final score Hawthorn: 12.9 (81) to Bulldogs: 8.11 (59).
Coming off three consecutive losses to top eight opponents, Sam Mitchell’s men faced another stern test against a formidable Western Bulldogs outfit.
Jack Ginnivan had indicated it would be a ‘bring your mouthguards to training’ kind of week following the Collingwood loss while there were reports the players led the review with some deep conversations probing where things went wrong.
But this time, they hunted ferociously, outworking Luke Beveridge‘s Bulldogs outfit, applying relentless pressure with every tackle laid at every opportunity.
With 35 tackles by half-time and 82 by the time the final siren went, it was clear the Hawks had received the memo.
Another pleasing sign was all but one player had recorded at least one tackle, whereas against Collingwood, 12 players laid only one or less.
The Hawks pressure took away time and space from the Bulldogs, stifling them and causing uncharacteristic errors and keeping them to their lowest score of the year.
Mabior Chol, who had inconsistent seasons with Richmond and Gold Coast, and has often been maligned throughout his career, appeared to be thriving in the brown and gold, performing arguably the best game of his career.
Not only did he demonstrate his marking prowess with three impressive marks, the 28-year-old stepped up with four crucial goals to help lead the Hawks to victory. In a low scoring affair decided by just 22 points, his four goals proved the difference.
One standout highlight came late in the second quarter. With less than five minutes before half-time, Chol found himself in a one-on-one contest in Hawthorn’s attacking 50m, after a long kick out of defence from Jai Newcombe. Not only did Chol outrun his opponent, Ryan Gardner, to ensure he got the ball, he then picked up the ball cleanly and, instead of blazing away under pressure, had the composure to spot a running Jack Gunston. His unselfish handball to his more experienced teammate set up a crucial goal, highlighting both his awareness and his team-first attitude.
Matthew Kennedy and James Harmes scored the first two goals of the second quarter to narrow the margin, but then triple premiership forward Jack Gunston responded with one and Jai Newcombe with another. Goals to Ed Richards and then by Chol followed and by half time the margin was 23 points, 52 to 29.
With captain James Sicily, versatile defender Jack Scrimshaw and livewire small forward Nick Watson out of the side, their replacements, Sam Butler, Max Ramsden and Seamus Mitchell were impressive and held their own.
Fans of the brown and gold would have been delighted with Butler getting through unscathed after recovering from a horrific broken leg he suffered in the VFL last year. After 418 days since he last played at AFL level, the 22-year-old had been rewarded for his fine form playing for Box Hill over the past few weeks and repaid the faith Mitchell and the coaching committee had in him.
Finishing with 14 disposals and five tackles, his coach was full of praise for the young midfielder.
“Some of the knocks and setbacks that he has had is an enormous resilience builder for him. I was so proud of him to play AFL footy at all, let alone to perform in AFL footy, I thought he was really good tonight,” Mitchell said.
“That was at the top range of what we thought he might be capable of; he has a great engine, great work rate, he’s a great tackler, he has played three games as a midfielder in five years, so to get that performance out of him was better than we thought. I was absolutely rapt for him, and it’s a story that we should celebrate.”
Ruckman Lloyd Meek (48 hitouts, five clearances) was dominant over Tim English while 2024 Peter Crimmins medallist, Jai Newcombe was hard as always in the contest, finishing with a game-high 10 clearances and 10 score involvements alongside his six tackles, 27 disposals and a goal. The ‘Newk’ also had 599 metres gained.
Josh Ward was busy again with 28 touches, four clearances, seven inside 50s and five tackles. He was a constant presence around the contest. Ward combined toughness with composure, standing up when it mattered while small forward Dylan Moore was back to his best with 26 possessions and 4 tackles.
James Worpel was subbed out for CJ (Changkuoth Jiath) late in the third quarter. It was revealed post-match that Worpel had suffered a corked thigh early in the game and had tried to play through the pain but after half-time was unable to.
With three goals to two in the third term, the Dogs trimmed the margin to 16 by the final change, trailing 49 to 65.
And when Jarman Impey and Ginnivan kicked their set shots out on the foul early in the final quarter, fans of the brown and gold were concerned it might come back to hurt, but when those two got on the end of the next two goals, it was out to the biggest margin of the game, 27 points, 77 to 50 with less than 15 minutes remaining on the clock.
Impey’s running prowess and aerial presence were once again instrumental in Hawthorn securing the four points. And in heart-warming scenes, the 29-year-old celebrated his goal snap with his arms in the shape of a cradling baby symbol, dedicating his goal to his newborn son after welcoming baby Zion into the world two weeks ago.
Ginnivan finished with 23 possessions and 2 goals.
Down back, Blake Hardwick, who had previously been used as a key forward earlier this season, kept Bulldogs small forward Rhylee West to just one behind and 11 touches, after West had kicked 19 goals to start the season while Josh Weddle was superb with 18 disposals, eight intercepts and 537 metres gained. The speedy utility also laid four tackles and scored a goal.
While pleased with his side’s gutsy display, and their ability to keep the highest scoring team in the competition to under 10 goals, the coach acknowledged there are still areas of improvement.
“We probably weren’t as potent as we would have liked. We had close to 60 inside 50s, but we could only put 81 points on the board,” Mitchell said.
However, importantly for Hawthorn they improved their ledger to 8 wins and 5 losses after round 13 and as Mitchell said in his post-match presser, “we’re on the long-term trajectory we want to be on.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was also in attendance at Marvel Stadium on Thursday night and was impressed with the Hawks’ performance.
The sixth-placed Hawks face another big test next week against Adelaide who are third on the ladder and had an impressive come-from-behind win against the premiers, Brisbane Lions on Friday night.
In their home-away-from-home at the University of Tasmania Stadium in Launceston, the Hawks will be looking to continue their winning form before their mid-season bye. The first bounce is at 7:40pm AEST.
