Hawkins, Cats strike as Hawks lift everywhere but the scoreboard
Sam Mitchell put his side under the pump after a poor effort in Round 2, and while the scoreboard might not reflect it, his charges responded to challenge the Cats in Tom Hawkins’ 350th.
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Sam Mitchell put the heat on Hawthorn’s midfield multiple times this week.
He wanted more effort around the ball and to be tougher.
And if the rain hit, he wanted to just win the ball and get it forward.
Hawthorn delivered on everything the coach asked for but in a game that will be most remembered for a 42-minute break for lightning, the Hawks were still brutally outclassed.
Only twice before this century have the team in brown and gold lost their first three games of the season and Mitchell’s men next head to Adelaide to face reigning premier Collingwood, likely without injured spearhead Mitch Lewis (hamstring).
Coach Mitchell was strong in his words this week about being better around the ball but as he plugged one leak, others burst open.
“I think if we can win enough contests and win enough stoppages then that gives us a chance,” Mitchell told Fox Footy pre-match.
At quarter-time on Monday, as Geelong led by 36 points, Mitchell can’t have been pleased.
All the damage was done on turnover, not from stoppage.
But from there, Hawks fans would have left the game reasonably happy.
After quarter-time, Hawthorn won the contested possession count by 27, won clearances by 9 and inside-50s by 13.
Sure, the Hawks dug in.
But the scoreboard didn’t budge.
Hawthorn was in such a hole in the first quarter that even their sharpest mind looked totally lost.
The smoothest and sharpest Hawk on the field, Luke Breust, blew two golden goal chances in the first term.
First, he found himself loose inside forward-50 and chose to snap at goal instead of handballing to a vacant Mitch Lewis in the goalsquare, with his kick touched on the way to a behind.
Minutes later, Breust was in even more space and took a bounce running into the 50m arc as Geelong’s Tom Stewart was caught between he and Lewis.
This time, Breust slipped and was enveloped by Cats and caught holding the ball.
In a week where old running mate Jack Gunston was dropped, Breust didn’t kick a goal and had 11 touches in an ineffective effort.
It could be the start of the end for the brilliant goalkicker, who has seen Jack Ginnivan and Dylan Moore go past him, with Nick Watson itching to follow.
The Hawks trailed at the first break by six goals and triple-premiership captain Luke Hodge described things as “scary”.
A punch back came in the second term, when the Hawks dominated and showed that the power of their stoppage game could do damage.
That was built off James Worpel and Jai Newcombe forcing the ball out of the middle over and over, as Mabior Chol stood up with three goals.
But in the end, the margin remained at 36 points, as the Cats steadied and held firm after the lightning cleared.
Hawthorn was last winless at this point of the year in 2017 and the previous time before that was 2005.
In the third of those losses to start that season, Jarryd Roughead and Jordan Lewis made their debut, alongside three-gamer Lance Franklin.
The building blocks were set for a team that would eventually flower into a four-flag dynasty.
On the biggest match of the year for Hawthorn, those building blocks were largely unclear.
Their biggest talent, Will Day, was watching from the other side of the fence.
And while Worpel, Newcombe and Conor Nash all played well, the Hawks weren’t particularly close to their biggest rival.
Not only were they beaten on the outside, there were beaten in front of the sticks, with Geelong clinical in slotting 17.4, as forwards Tom Hawkins, Jeremy Cameron, Ollie Henry and Tyson Stengle refused to miss.
In a season where most have already dismissed West Coast and North Melbourne as easybeats, Hawthorn has to do some work to get out of that category.
HAWKINS’ 350TH ONE TO REMEMBER
A long break for lightning and a trademark left-to-right goal made Tom Hawkins’ 350th game one to remember as Geelong claimed a 36-point win over Hawthorn on Easter Monday.
Hawkins booted four majors including an opening term set shot from the boundary which he sentimentally slid through on the reverse angle as the Cats survived a second-quarter scare to take an unblemished 3-0 record into Gather Round.
Geelong skipper Tom Stewart escaped a head knock scare in the brutal contest in slippery conditions but the Hawks will be sweating on the fitness of spearhead Mitch Lewis (hamstring) and the impressive Nick Watson, who was helped off the field with an ankle injury in the final minute of the match.
A flat-footed Hawthorn looked more like spectators than opponents as the Cats piled on the pain with six consecutive goals in the first term, but Mabior Chol sprung to life midway through the second and ignited a fierce comeback which brought the Hawks within four points just after halftime.
A run-down tackle on Zach Guthrie gave Chol his first goal and provided the spark for a fierce counter-attack, with small forwards Watson and Jack Ginnivan antagonising the Geelong defenders as Chol and Mitch Lewis began to take charge in the air.
But the Cats’ responded to Chol’s third major with a flurry of four goals as Hawkins came back into the game and Ollie Henry won two crucial one-on-one contests against James Sicily deep inside 50.
Sicily’s poor form both in defence and with the ball in hand continued to hurt Hawthorn, as did Jai Newcombe’s lack of impact for the third consecutive week after he entered the season threatening to become one of the game’s premier on-ballers.
James Worpel was prolific for the Hawks but their midfield was soundly beaten by the Cats’ unheralded unit, led by Tanner Bruhn who amassed 15 disposals and five clearances in a dominant first term before he finished with a career-high 27 possessions.
LIGHTNING CRASHES
The thunderstorm which had earlier almost ruined the Stawell Gift swept past the MCG at three quarter time, with players ordered from the field and fans urged to take shelter as some flashes of lightning were seen in the distance.
Play didn’t resume for almost 40 minutes, with Geelong fans relieved to see acting captain Tom Stewart return to the field after he spent the end of the third term receiving a concussion test after a heavy knee to the back of the head from Chol in a marking contest.
CATS THROW FIRST PUNCH
Geelong loaded up its halfback line with leg speed and it paid off in dividends in a scintillating seven-goal opening term.
Max Holmes was restricted by a sore ankle after halftime but rocketed across the MCG turf with nine disposals at 100 per cent efficiency as he helped stun a flat-footed Hawthorn.
Tyson Stengle set the tone for the Cats with a curling banana from the boundary as Brad Close and Ollie Henry were rewarded for strong tackles with their own goals.
Mitch Duncan looked back to his best as he set up two of the first-quarter majors and found plenty of the football rotating with Tom Stewart between halfback and a wing.
WIZARD STILL CALIBRATING
Despite the Hawks’ early season struggles, No. 5 pick Nick Watson has had no difficulty getting himself involved in play.
But the entertaining small forward would have been irate with himself after the worst of his missed shots at goal so far - a sitter from less than 5m out that came off his boot at a right angle and went out on the full late in the second term.
It still wasn’t as costly as a pair of first quarter blunders in front of goal from Luke Breust, who could come under pressure for his spot after another off-colour performance.
HAWKS 1.1, 6.3, 8.4, 10.10 (70)
CATS 7.1, 8.2, 14.4, 17.4 (106)
BOURKE’S BEST Hawks: Worpel, Mackenzie, Chol, Watson, Amon, Weddle. Cats: Duncan, Bruhn, Holmes, Stewart, Stengle, O Henry.
GOALS
Hawks: Chol 3, Mackenzie 2, Macdonald, Lewis, Worpel, Ginnivan, Watson.
Cats: O Henry 4, Hawkins 4, Cameron 2, Stengle 2, Close, Conway, Duncan, Holmes, Miers.
UMPIRES Fisher, Foot, Hosking, Mollison
INJURIES Hawks: Lewis (hamstring), Watson (ankle). Cats: nil.
CROWD 67,020 at the MCG
BOURKE’S VOTES
3. Mitch Duncan (Geel)
2. Tanner Bruhn (Geel)
1. Max Holmes (Geel)
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