With their midfield stocks in the spotlight all week, the Hawks sent a timely reminder of how good they can be
The Hawks can’t win the flag without Will Day, they said. Or without a player like Zach Merrett. Well, turns out those assessements might be off the mark – here’s why.
All week the talk outside of Hawthorn was about Zach Merrett completing the puzzle.
Within the first 10 minutes on Friday night, the Hawks midfield had already answered back.
Maybe they have enough already.
Will Day was watching from the bench with a headset on, Merrett remained the subject of letters from the president and these Hawthorn midfielders just got on with the job.
The caveat is that Adelaide’s midfield may be the weakest of all the finalists, but this was a beat down of the highest order.
Led by the Power of Poowong in September specialist Jai Newcombe, the Hawks won the contested ball count by 31, the best finals return on record for a club that used to have Hodge, Mitchell, Lewis, Burgoyne and Sewell in its midfield.
Within the first five minutes of the opening bounce, Newcombe had more clearances than a Black Friday sale but he wasn’t alone.
Josh Ward dropped the best game of his 66-game career, dominating out of the midfield with a team-high 31 disposals.
No Hawk has had at least 30 disposals and 14 contested possessions in a final at a younger age than the 22-year-old.
Likely in his final days in the brown and gold, James Worpel was too strong for Adelaide on multiple occasions.
Conor Nash put his foot on the throat of Jordan Dawson’s miserable finals campaign.
Lloyd Meek shook Reilly O’Brien so hard he was so surprised to find space in the third term that he was lucky to hit his shin with a kick going forward.
No doubt a player like Merrett would be handy, but when asked if this Hawks onball brigade is enough, Ward happily backed them in.
Even if Merrett or Christian Petracca or some other jet is coming in the trade period, they aren’t walking in to Waverley in the next fortnight.
“I will leave that to the list management team to answer (if we need a recruit) but I love our midfield group,” he said.
“I feel like we are very unselfish. We might not always get the biggest numbers but we have shown we are able to get the job done.”
Sam Mitchell was unapologetic post-match about his pursuit of Merrett and will remain that way, and any upgrade will obviously make the Hawks midfield better, particularly with Worpel likely headed to Geelong.
But having knocked two teams out, perhaps that upgrade isn’t needed this September.
UNDER RADAR HAWKS FLIERS
Attention will rightly zero in on Newcombe and his four-from-four run as the highest ranked player on the ground in all of his finals so far is a stat that will be quoted almost as much as Donald Trump over the weekend.
The muscle bound No. 3 is delivering a pretty good Leigh Matthews impersonation and Jack Gunston scrambled Mark Keane.
But don’t sleep on Mitchell getting the most out of the underbelly of this Hawthorn team.
Some fans wouldn’t recognise Ward if he was sipping a latte on Glenferrie Rd but in a cutthroat semi-final on the Adelaide Oval, Mitchell deemed it “probably” the best game of his life.
“You would argue it is the best game of his career, to do it on the big stage was pretty good,” Mitchell said.
A smart man, the midfielder agreed with his coach.
“I think so, it probably is,” Ward said minutes after the siren.
“I felt like it was just one of those nights the ball came to me and sometimes you have nights where it just happens.”
The young left-footer has been thrown from the inside to outside as most young on-ballers do but he always felt he had the backing of the coaches and teammates to deliver when the lights were brightest.
It was a similar story for forward Sam Butler, who found himself out of the team with a broken leg mid-year, but kicked a vital fourth-quarter goal to sink GWS last week and bagged two more at important times against Adelaide.
“We do feel empowered to come in and perform,” Ward said.
“I just feel like we have the trust to come in and play to our strengths and bring our weapons and it is a very unselfish group.
“We have stars but they don’t act like it. Newc’s always trusting me to get into positions to get the ball and feel like he really empowers young mids like myself.”
No team can win it all with passengers and all the Hawks are pulling their weight right now.
.
THE ROAD TO THE ‘G
It’s no wonder Gunston breathed a gleeful sigh when told post-match the Hawks wouldn’t be travelling any more.
The only other Victorian side to win back-to-back finals at the home of interstate rivals was the 2021 Western Bulldogs, who went all the way to the grand final.
Hawthorn will not have to leave the MCG for the rest of its season, whether that last one or two more weeks.
This team has won two finals on the road, after last year beating a more fancied Bulldogs side in front of 97,828 fans and coming one James Sicily poster away from silencing a rabid Port Adelaide crowd.
Ward enjoyed the moment after the siren on Friday night and emphasised his side standing up under all of that noise.
“It was one of the best wins I have had in my career so far, it feels so good to come in and play the way we want to, not be overawed by the occasion and get the job done,” he said.
Ward doesn’t have to go back too far for memories about the Hawks and Cats – who played five finals between 2008 and 2016 – before Friday’s blockbuster, that is sure to draw 95,000 fans to the ‘G.
“As a Hawthorn fan growing up I went and watched all those finals we played against Geelong,” he said.
“I’m sure it will be a great atmosphere and build up like it always is but we will be treating it like another game I’m sure.”
The fans won’t be treating it like any other game as one of the game’s best rivalries returns to the biggest stage.
Strap in, another classic beckons.
Originally published as With their midfield stocks in the spotlight all week, the Hawks sent a timely reminder of how good they can be
‘It was a shock’: Cox still seeking answers after Pies blindside
