Heading into Friday night’s clash with Adelaide, much of the focus was on how Hawthorn’s four tall forwards would perform.
For the first time, the coaching committee selected Mabior Chol, Calsher Dear, Mitch Lewis and triple premiership star Jack Gunston to play together.
After 28 minutes, when the Hawks had piled on the first five goals of the game to lead by 32 points, the tactic appeared to be a masterstroke.
Particularly pleasing was two of those four tall forwards, Gunston and Chol combined for three of those five goals, while small forwards, Dylan Moore and Nick Watson scored the other two.
In front of a sold-out crowd of 50,654 at Adelaide Oval, Hawthorn raced out of the blocks and threatened to pull off an upset win.
It wasn’t until 25 seconds before the quarter-time siren that Adelaide scored their first goal, leaving Hawthorn with a handy 26-point lead at the first break, 5.3 (33) to 1.1 (7).
That late goal, however, sparked a remarkable momentum shift. Adelaide piled on eight consecutive goals as their midfield gained ascendency.
Captain Jordan Dawson, along with Riley Thilthorpe and veteran Taylor Walker, led the charge, willed their side back into the contest and hit the front while keeping the Hawks scoreless in that second quarter.
By half-time, Adelaide had turned things around. The home side hit the front, turning a 26-point deficit at quarter-time into a 16-point lead.
When they scored the opening goal of the third term, Adelaide was out to a 22-point advantage.
This led the coach to abandon the experiment of four tall forwards as father-son recruit Calsher Dear was subbed out and James Worpel, who was listed as the sub, was injected into the game.
But the Hawks weren’t done. Desperate for the win to keep their finals chances alive, they fought back, kicking six goals for the third term.
When Jack Ginnivan snapped a goal just before three-quarter time, Hawthorn had regained a healthy eight-point lead going into the final change.
With plenty on the line for both teams, the stage was set for a thrilling conclusion, and it lived up to that hype.
Momentum swings were happening throughout the whole night including in the final quarter.
The home side had a never-say-die attitude and kicked six goals to two in the final quarter to win by 14 points.
The Hawks had their chances in the final quarter to seal the deal but were left to rue what might have been after costly misses by Massimo D’Ambrosio, Gunston and Watson ultimately proved decisive.
On the contrary, the Crows were clinical in their response, seizing their opportunities.
When Walker, the only player on the field who played in Adelaide’s last Grand Final, the 2017 humiliation to Richmond, marked and then kicked a goal from just outside 50m, Adelaide was off to an 11-point lead with only minutes left in the game.
When prolific ball winner D’Ambrosio marked from 20 metres out, the Hawks faithful’s flicker of hope of a top-four finish was kept alive, but his kick went through for a behind.
Adelaide rebounded through slick ball movement and Walker was able to get it again.
When the former captain scored his third goal a moment later to extend Adelaide’s lead, he completed a miracle comeback in the city of Churches.
Trailing by 32 points late in the first quarter, Adelaide worked hard to get back into the contest and ultimately prevailed, with the win lifting them to top spot on the ladder.
Adelaide Coach Matthew Nicks credited the passionate home crowd in getting his side over the line.
“I’m not sure we’re winning this one if it wasn’t at home,” Nicks said.
Hawks Coach Sam Mitchell was full of praise for his side’s effort to come back into the contest after Adelaide’s second-quarter blitz, but acknowledged Adelaide’s eight straight goals proved costly.
“The positive was that we got back in front, even after that, but just couldn’t finish the job at the end. We had chances all the way until the last three minutes and didn’t take them.”
Despite the loss, Mitchell remains confident in his side’s ability to still make finals.
“The season’s in our hands. We have three games to go, win those and we’ll see you in September.”
“Don’t think anyone walks away from tonight thinking the Hawks aren’t pretty good. Everyone recognises there’s something in our game that’s good, but good is a challenge because we need to be great from where we are right now,” Mitchell said.
While a win would have lifted the Hawks to third place on the ladder, the loss leaves Sam Mitchell’s men in a precarious position to make finals with only three games remaining.
Still currently fifth on the ladder (pending results from other games this round which could see Hawthorn drop to seventh), with games to come against Collingwood, Melbourne and Brisbane at the Gabba in the final round, the Hawks have arguably the toughest run home.
With the other sides in the eight currently having a relatively much easier draw, Hawthorn faces an uphill battle to secure its finals berth.
And the loss wasn’t the only upsetting thing for the boys in brown and gold.
Adding to Hawthorn’s woes, star midfielder Will Day, who had only returned to the AFL side last week from a lengthy foot injury, suffered a recurrence of the bone stress injury in his right foot, after spending more than four months on the sidelines. It’s a season-ending injury.
For Adelaide, Thilthorpe led the way with four goals, while Walker (three goals) and captain Dawson (two goals, 21 disposals and 12 tackles), and Izak Rankine (three goals, three goal assists), whose ability to create exciting opportunities gave Adelaide a boost when it needed it, were also impressive.
Triple premiership star Gunston was the leading goalkicker for the Hawks kicking 4.1.
Karl Amon was prolific as always with 23 disposals, five tackles and 606 metres gained while Jarman Impey was also solid with 22 disposals, five marks and three tackles. The skipper James Sicily was also back to his best form with 18 disposals, 11 marks and 488 metres gained.
In the ruck, Lloyd Meek and Reilly O’Brien were solid competitors in their battle with 44 and 43 hit outs respectively.
Hawthorn now faces another big challenge in Collingwood on Thursday night at the MCG to keep their finals chances alive.
First bounce is at 7:30pm AEST.
