Hawthorn’s old guard impress in thrilling upset win over Melbourne at the MCG
JARRYD Roughead led from the front while Shaun Burgoyne, Luke Hodge and youngster Tim O’Brien were crucial in Hawthorn’s thrilling win over Melbourne.
THE anguish was all over Alastair Clarkson’s face.
Of course the ball had to make its way to Jordan Lewis in the cut-throat final-minute of Sunday’s pulsating clash against Melbourne.
Six months earlier, Lewis was shocked sitting on his own couch as Clarkson told him to consider finding a new home.
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Now he was watching the premiership Hawk and new Demon nail the clutch set shot to reduce Hawthorn’s lead to only three points with only precious moments remaining.
But imagine the coach’s relief as new captain Jarryd Roughead, already with four goals to his name in his best game of the year, then made the crucial spoil in the final minute that saved Hawthorn in this three-point win.
They led earlier in the third term by 35 points but once again capitulated in the third term allowing a Jack Viney and Jayden Hunt-inspired Melbourne to surge back into the contest with seven third-term goals, their best third stanza against the Hawks in 50 years.
But the Hawks held on, thanks largely to the veterans a lot of us have been writing off over the past two months, and emerging key forward Tim O’Brien.
The Hawks have been patient with O’Brien and he rewarded them with a career-high 10 marks, including five contested grabs. These are crucial green shoots.
But you could not miss the influence of Roughead who kicked crucial goals against the flow in the third and fourth term, and the absolute precision of Burgoyne in the pressure cooker moments.
Even Josh Gibson laid a telling bump on Mitch Hannan and Isaac Smith coolly slotted a 40m major on the run that helped steady the Hawthorn ship, while Tom Mitchell enhanced his standing as the club’s best player over the first seven rounds.
Luke Hodge was another who rolled his sleeves up and willed the Hawks to the win in customary courageous fashion.
Save for the third-term choke, they deserved this, the Hawks.
And they deserve even more credit considering Jaeger O’Meara was out with more knee trouble and Grant Birchall suffered a game-ending knee injury in the first term.
Viney was massive in the engine room leading Melbourne’s third term fightback and Hunt’s move into the forward line helped spark the Dees, while Sam Frost made some miracle spoils at the back end.
But history says Melbourne lose more often than not as the favourite, and here was another case for the coaching staff to chew over the mental issues which must be at play.
Melbourne’s first-half performance was easily its worst of the season and the looks on the faces of the Demons as they trudged off the field said it all.
The three main problems were glaring.
Handball might be increasing sharply around the league after the Bulldogs’ successes last year but Melbourne overcooked the handpass horribly early (131 to 98 kicks) and it invited the swarms of Hawthorn pressure around the contest.
Remarkably only two of Clayton Oliver’s 17 possessions were kicks.
Yet at the other end, Jack Gunston and Luke Breust both had their radars finely tuned with tight- angled snaps, while Will Langford dribbled one home from the boundary line.
Aerially, Hawthorn also had total control, with young key talls James Sicily and O’Brien standing strong in the contests.
It was telling late in the second term as O’Brien reeled in an intercept mark from an errant Melbourne kick-in and found Ben McEvoy floating across a pack of Demons’ defenders close to goal to put the Hawks 29 points up.
With ruck pair Max Gawn and James Spencer out injured, the Dees were forced to use key defender Tom McDonald as a makeshift ruckman and were still able to win the bulk of the clearances (22-12) at the main change.
But Simon Goodwin would have been filthy with their foot skills as Nathan Jones twice coughed the ball up and Cameron Pedersen miscued badly running into the 50m arc.
Jones then took matters into his own hands with a brilliant solo effort, shrugging off two tacklers and nailing a beauty from 40m against the flow.
Originally published as Hawthorn’s old guard impress in thrilling upset win over Melbourne at the MCG