Top-four quest remains on track as unconvincing Hawks hold off Saints in dour round 17 clash

The Hawks are still right in the mix for a double-chance in Spetember, but coach Sam Mitchell still believes his side has plenty to do if they’re going to challenge the best come finals.

Ronny Lerner

5 min read

July 6, 2025 - 8:40AM

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Hawthorn might have won their last four games to keep themselves right in the hunt for a double chance, but coach Sam Mitchell is not overly pleased with how they are travelling.

The Hawks only managed 42 forward entries against bottom-four St Kilda on Saturday night at Marvel Stadium, but their deadly efficiency played a big role in their 20-point win.

Mitchell intimated that his team would have to play much better than that if they wanted to challenge the best teams at the business end of the season.

The Hawks continued their hot form. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos

“I thought there was a level of maturity about our game,” Mitchell said.

“But if you put our performance tonight against the very best, does that stand up? And that’s what we’re aiming for, and we’ve got some work to do to get to that spot.

“We’re going to have to kick it up a gear at some stage.”

Hawthorn’s win against St Kilda was a mixed bag and Mitchell was torn between the glass-half-full and glass-half-empty approach when analysing it.

“It depends on which piece of vision or which clip I’m watching. There’s a bit of both,” he said.

“There’s a couple of ways you can look at the game. You can look at it from a positive lens and say we kicked a reasonable score for the amount of inside 50s we had.

“The other way to look at it is: why were we only going inside 50 42 times?

“One of those games where I’m not sure too many are rushing home to watch the replay.”

A big positive was the performance of defender Josh Battle against his former team. Saints fans booed him all night, and it happened often as he collected 23 disposals.

“I was really pleased that our fans got behind him and really cheered him home and it makes sense that they’d be disappointed to lose him. He’s a very good player and very important to us now,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell says the Hawks still have plenty to fix. Picture: Mark Stewart

“He handled some difficulties enormously well.”

And Battle had to contend with some further obstacles before the game even started.

“There was an accident on the freeway and he ended up getting pulled over by the police on the way to the game,” Mitchell said.

“So he’s having one of those days where it’s like anything could happen, so to perform under those circumstances, I think that shows the level of character and maturity he has.”

Mitchell confirmed that Battle was not suspected of being involved in the crash.

“No. It was nothing like that,” he laughed. “Nothing untoward.”

Encouragingly for the Hawks, they could reintegrate the likes of Will Day, Calsher Dear and Mitch Lewis into the senior side over the final eight rounds of the home-and-away season.

But Mitchell wasn’t fussed by the potential juggling act that could cause at the selection table.

“It feels like there’s probably 27 in our best 22, but we would’ve said it was going to be difficult to fit ‘Sis’ (James Sicily) in and unfortunately we lost Josh Weddle,” Mitchell said.

“So you kick that can down the road ... that’s the dilemma you want. It’s much better to play all the players you want and a couple miss out than to be able to pick the team and say, ‘I hope he can perform at the level’.

“There is a zero per cent chance that we go the rest of the season unchanged.”

HAWKS WIN RAISES BIG QUESTIONS – ABOUT BOTH SIDES

Hawthorn’s quest for a top-four spot remains on track after they outclassed St Kilda by 20 points at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night.

The Saints did a lot right. They had already beaten their average of 60 tackles per game late in the third quarter, and ended up out-tackling the Hawks handsomely 82-58, but they let themselves down badly when entering their forward line.

The difference in quality of delivery inside 50 between the two sides was enormous.

While the Saints struggled to hit targets with deplorable foot skills, the Hawks had no such issues registering the first six marks inside 50 and ultimately winning that stat 14-10.

St Kilda comfortably won the inside-50 count 53-42, yet managed four fewer goals as they were also undone by inaccuracy.

Damningly for the Saints, halfway through the third quarter, their disposal efficiency was 36 per cent forward of centre.

Jack Higgins on a frustrating night for St Kilda. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

After making a wayward start to the game with 2.6, the Hawks sharpened up dramatically with their next 10 scoring shots all goals, and ended up winning 14.10 (94) to 10.14 (74) to make it four wins on the trot.

Out-of-contract St Kilda star Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera added some extra value to his next deal by recording a career-high 43 disposals as well as 11 contested possessions and six marks, and could’ve had an even bigger night, but kicked three behinds.

Max Hall was outstanding for the Saints as well, racking up 27 touches (13 contested), six grabs, five clearances and three goals.

For the winners, ruckman Lloyd Meek was brilliant with 20 disposals (14), 59 hitouts and five clearances, while Josh Battle had a great night in defence with 23 touches and seven marks against his old side as he copped the boos from St Kilda fans all night.

Jack Ginnivan loves a goal celebration

HILL SHOCKER

The Hawks were gifted a goal late in the third quarter when Bradley Hill dropped a chest mark in their goal square and Mabior Chol collected the crumbs before strolling into the open goal to put his side up by 26 points.

SHARMAN LACKS POWER

The Saints had a little sniff early in the final term when Cooper Sharman had the chance to cut the deficit to 14 points, but his shot on goal on the run from 25m out was too low and Karl Amon took the saving mark in the goal square for the Hawks. Shortly after, Dylan Moore kicked truly to put Hawthorn up by 26 points and effect a two-goal swing.

Alix Tauru takes a huge mark against the Hawks

ALIXZANDER THE GREAT

Exciting No.10 pick Alix Tauru gave Saints fans another mouth-watering glimpse of the future when he flew across the pack in the second quarter and took a magnificent contested mark in between Tom Barrass and Jack Gunston.

And while he couldn’t complete the play by pulling his set shot from 30m out, the teenager already looks like a player in just his third game.

Young Saint Angus Hastie challenged Tauru for mark of the night in the shadows of there-quarter time when he flew on Dylan Moore’s shoulders to take a spectacular intercept mark.

Tauru’s moment at Marvel Stadium. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos

CARELESS CLARK

St Kilda’s Hunter Clark couldn’t keep out of trouble in the first half, giving away a whopping six free kicks, which equalled the record by a Saints player for any half, and smashed his previous career-high of four for an entire game.

ICE COLD KEELER

St Kilda tall Isaac Keeler had to wait until the final quarter to register his one and only disposal for the match, which was as many touches as teammate Jimmy Webster had before being subbed off in the first half with a calf injury.