AFL Finals: Mark Robinson on Jack Ginnivan, Calsher Dear and Hawthorn’s win over the Bulldogs

It’s difficult keeping up with Hok Ball because the moments seem to get bigger, louder and more outrageous, writes MARK ROBINSON. But behind the noise is a serious group of kids.

It’s difficult keeping up with “Hok Ball” because the moments seem to get bigger, louder and more outrageous with every one of them.

It’s the noise. It arrives after a mark, or a tackle, or a snapped goal and it arrives like a furious clap of thunder.

Of the 97,000 fans at the MCG on Friday night, it felt like 80,000 of them were Hawks fans.

When the noise truly rumbled alive is open for debate, but you can probably hang your hat on Connor Macdonald in the third quarter.

By then, the Hawks had edged ahead in play and on the scoreboard.

The death plays started, as a lot of them did, via a James Sicily intercept mark on the wing. Sicily’s kick to the pocket was roved off the pack by Nick Watson, who skipped along the boundary line, handballed to Jack Gunston, who handballed to Macdonald, who curled a goal on the run from 10m.

It was fast footwork, faster brain work, unselfish from Gunston and clinical from Macdonald.

Mabior Chol jumps over Nick Watson during the third term. Picture: Michael Klein

It was a moment all right, like Watson’s sneaky tackle on Bailey Dale three minutes earlier. My God, the noise at the moment. The only problem was Watson missed the goal from 50m.

Not to be outdone, minutes later Calsher Dear floated high over two Dogs opponents and clutched a one-hander near the boundary line. His goal from just inside 50m made the margin 27 points. It was his third goal.

The outrageous came a short time later, when the king of the rascals, Jack Ginnivan, found Watson 25m from goal. When Watson kicked his third goal, the thunder clapped louder again, but that wasn’t the outrageous. That came when Watson was celebrating in typical sassy fashion and teammate Mabior Chol bounded in and jumped vertical and over Watson.

And perhaps the most outrageous moment of all came when Ginnivan dribbled a goal in the final quarter to officially end the Bulldogs season. To thunder again, Ginnivan ran to the pocket, cracked a pretend can of beer, took a couple of pretend swigs from it, and waved to the crowd.

Love him or loathe him, he’s an entertainer.

Jack Ginnivan, Watson and Connor Macdonald after the win. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos

Look at the names, though.

Dear is 19 and has played 16 games, and this one on 33-year-old Liam Jones. Watson is 19 and played 17 games. Macdonald is 21. And Ginnivan is 21. Best afield Jai Newcombe is 23. Massimo D’Ambrosio is 21.

Dear’s first final had the hallmarks of another young Hawk who played a zillion years ago. His name was Dermott Brereton. Derm kicked five in his first final and while Dear only got three, only a fool would suggest that Dear does not have a big future.

His counterpart, 21-year-old Sam Darcy was solid, far more so than his much heralded and higher paid teammate Jamarra Ugle Hagan. Another teammate, Aaron Naughton kicked three goals, but one of them came with four minutes to play. But he only took two marks, as did Ugle-Hagan.

Just 37 inside 50s from the Dogs didn’t help them, but nor did any of the Bulldogs help the team by making Sicily somewhat ineffective. He had 23 and took 11 marks and his four score involvements were one shy of the five combined for Naughton and Ugle-Hagan.

Tim English was well beaten by Hawk Lloyd Meek. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos

A host of Bulldogs went missing, the biggest name being the skipper, Marcus Bontempelli.

Ruckman Tim English should also disappointed.

Without a big output from Bontempelli, the Dogs didn’t have a game-changer, while the bunch of role players which had held the Dogs in good stead for much of the second half of the season, were insignificant.

In a game touted as the land of the talls versus the paddock of the small, it was Bulldogs’ talls which defied popular finals thinking early.

With the score 25-13, three of the four Bulldogs goals had come from their big guys – Naughton, Darcy and English – and combined with clearance dominance, the Bulldogs had control of the game.

At quarter-time they led clearances by seven. A halftime, they led clearance by nine. It goes to show that clearance numbers aren’t a direct correlation to who is winning the game.

The Dogs led by 12 points at quarter-time and trailed by 11 points at halftime.

Originally published as AFL Finals: Mark Robinson on Jack Ginnivan, Calsher Dear and Hawthorn’s win over the Bulldogs