Damning vision exposes Hawthorn players after loss to Port Adelaide

Multiple Hawthorn players have come under heavy fire after being exposed by damning footage in the wake of their horror loss.

Hawthorn’s horror showing in the first half against Port Adelaide has been put under the microscope by several AFL greats.

The Hawks entered the final game of Gather Round as the favourites to keep their perfect record in tact.

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But it all went pear-shaped as the Power left their rivals in the dust, leading at one point by 71-points in the second quarter.

On Monday night the Hawks stars were thrown into the flames with former Melbourne captain Garry Lyon singling out skipper James Sicily.

Lyon highlighted a damning passage of play where Sicily had called for a teammate to cover his opponent who went on to kick a goal.

Watch the damning vision in the video player above

The 57-year-old said the skipper had shown “blatant disregard” by electing to turn his back on his own opponent.

Sicily came under heavy fire. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

“I don’t want to take anything away from Port Adelaide, but they (the Hawks) were lamentable,” Lyon began on AFL 360 of the Hawks’ performance.

“And it started with their captain. The captain has to set the standard; he’s the one who found himself in the middle of it. I’m thinking, he’s the one who’s got to juice himself up here and get it sorted.

“Powell-Pepper went to him, and he (Sicily) just had a blatant disregard.”

Footage then rolled of Powell-Pepper pushing up the ground away from Sicily as the Hawks skipper points Tom Barrass to pick him up.

“Look (at him pointing) — what’s that? That sends a message early in a game to the rest of the team (that) ‘it’s not my fault’ or ‘I can’t be bothered doing what I need to do as a captain’,” Lyon continued.

“His ball use was horrible. And I thought the two recruits, Battle and Barrass, were off early. Their communication and their willingness to work hard just wasn’t there. Battle’s playing 10, 15 metres off (his opponent), so that didn’t work.”

Sicily refused to go with Powell-Pepper.

Lyon wasn’t alone in calling out Sicily for leaving Sam Powell-Pepper unattended with Kane Cornes and Nick Riewoldt also highlighting the ugly vision.

“Sicily has zero awareness,” Riewoldt said on Channel 7’s The Trend Setters.

Cornes added: “What is he doing?”

Riewoldt said: “That is his actual opponent and he has zero awareness as to where he is.”

Sicily however wasn’t the only Hawk in the gun with Cornes and Riewoldt turning the spotlight on a handful of issues that popped up in the bloodbath.

“They were ill-disciplined and they were picked apart by the Port Adelaide forwards,” Cornes said.

In the opening minute of the game, Josh Weddle lost track of Zak Butters with the Power star getting on the receiving end of a kick before finding Joe Richards for the opening goal.

Weddle lost sight of Butters.

Butters got it while Weddle was 20m away.

Only a handful of minutes later Karl Amon sat off the back of a contest as Jackson Mead went in.

As the ball came out of the pack it was Butters who sprung towards goal with Amon in no man’s land and unable to impact the contest as Butters dished it out to Mead who ran in uncontested to slot the second goal of the contest.

Karl Amon didn't commit to the contest like Mead did.

Amon found himself in no man's land as Mead strolled into goal.

Lyon explained the silver lining of the disappointing loss; in that it served as a wake-up call, adding that Sicily won’t be caught pointing next Monday against the Cats.

“This is why it’s not the end of the world. In fact, I think it’s good for Hawthorn,” he said.

“James Sicily will respond against Geelong, it’ll sharpen them all up, and I’ll guarantee you, I won’t come back in here ever again if in the first three minutes of that game James Sicily points at whoever he’s on and says: ‘someone else get him’.

“It just won’t happen.”

Hawthorn and Geelong will locks horns on Easter Monday at the MCG with the contest kicking off at 3:20pm (AEST).

Originally published as Damning vision exposes Hawthorn players after loss to Port Adelaide