'Hawks must smash Crowley', Geelong premiership player Cameron Mooney says

GEELONG premiership player Cameron Mooney says Hawthorn must put Fremantle tagger Ryan Crowley "through hell" tomorrow.

Ryan Crowley

GEELONG premiership player Cameron Mooney has accused Hawthorn of being soft in last year's grand final and says they must put Fremantle tagger Ryan Crowley "through hell" if they're to win tomorrow.

Mooney said Hawthorn's leaders needed to set the tone by crunching Crowley early in the game to allow their own midfield star Sam Mitchell to run free.

"If I was playing in a grand final against Fremantle and Crowley was going onto my best midfielders - Joel Selwood or a Gary Ablett - and he was physically and verbally in his face, I would want to run straight through him, just to free up my best player," Mooney told AFL 360.

Every Hawthorn and Fremantle player rated

"This is where I think Hodge, Lewis, Guerra, all these guys, they have to put so much pressure on this guy physically to make sure if he goes to Mitchell - and mitchell's so imporant - if he stops Mitchell ... he almost stops their midfield."

"Crowley's so imporant for Freo, and so is Mitchell (for Hawthorn). They have to make sure Mitchell gets the ball. And how do they do that? You've got to put this guy through hell."

Mooney predicted early fireworks as both teams try to establish a physical advantage.

"It's going to be fight Saturday, let's be honest," he said.

"You look at Ballantyne and few of those guys, Crowley, they're very much in your face and Hawthorn, none of these guys take a backwards step, so I think it's going to be pretty punchy early on. There's going to be some fists thrown."

Gerard Healy echoed Mooney's belief that Hawthorn would take any opportunity to flatten the Dockers' best tagger.

"I don't think we're going to see any king hits, but there's no doubt if there's an opportunity to take him out with a hip and shoulder, that will be taken every time. Similarly if there's a person that can be decked from Hawthorn, that opportunity will be taken," Healy said in his SuperFooty live chat yesterday.