St Kilda 3.2 7.3 12.7 13.10 (88)
Hawthorn 3.6 8.9 13.11 18.15 (123)
Goals: St Kilda: Koschitzke 5, Riewoldt 3, Fisher, Milera, Milne, Saad, Stanley
Hawthorn: Rioli 6, Franklin 5, Roughead 2, Breust, Hale, Puopolo, Smith, Whitecross
Best: St Kilda: Koschitzke, Steven, Blake, Goddard, Gram
Hawthorn: Rioli, Franklin, Shiels, Lewis, Hodge, Mitchell
Crowd: 42,289 at the MCG
Cyril Rioli and Lance Franklin starred in Hawthorn’s 35-point win over St Kilda the last time the two team met, in Round 6 last season.
The game was a hard-fought one, with the Hawks unable to shake an impressive St Kilda until the final term, where it piled on five goals to one to secure victory.
The Hawks were without key defender Josh Gibson, which meant their defence was undersized against the talls of St Kilda – Justin Koschitzke, Nick Riewoldt and Rhys Stanley who played forward.
As a result, Koschitzke and Reiwoldt combined for eight of their team’s 13 goals and were a headache for Coach Alastair Clarkson and the Hawks all night, despite the advantage Hawthorn had at ground level, with their versatile and athletic defender able to run-off their opponents.
While the Saints’ big men had an impact on the match, the Hawks’ ability to swiftly move the ball from defence to attack was telling. Hawthorn finished the match with 27 rebounds from 50, 15 of those in the se
The defenders, with the help of the midfielders were able to pressure the delivery to the Saints’ forwards enough that running defenders Luke Hodge, Grant Birchall, Brent Guerra and Matt Suckling were amongst the leading disposal getters for Hawthorn throughout the course of the night.
The four defenders ended the match with 90 possessions between them and rebounded from the back 50 on seven occasions.
Important too, was the defensive work of Suckling, Guerra and Birchall, keeping their St Kilda opponents quiet as Stephen Milne (11 possessions, one goal), Terry Milera (nine possessions, one goal), Stanley (seven possessions, one goal) and Arryn Sipposs (11possessions, no goals) failed to have an impact on the contest.
St Kilda was one of the best sides in the competition at the time in creating a loose man in defence, able to read the play and create a two-on-one situation on the opposition’s gun forward.
Sam Fisher did this to great effect in the first half, affecting a number of spoils and contests in front of Lance Franklin. He also had three rebound 50s before leaving the ground with an injury.
That spelt trouble for the Saints as the Hawks saw an opening and went for it.
When Fisher left the ground, Franklin played an integral role in the Hawks win, kicking 5.6 for the match from 18 disposals. When Fisher was substituted though, the Saints’ ability to rebound off half back suffered, as Hawthorn forwards Cyril Rioli (five tackles), David Hale (five tackles), Michael Osborne (three tackles), and Paul Puopolo (five tackles in one quarter of football) pressured the St Kilda defence and forced a number of turnovers.
Those turnovers often ended in scoring opportunities for the Hawks, as Cyril Rioli in particular pounced. Rioli finished the game with six majors and, in the final term, the Hawks made the most of their opportunities in front of goal, booting 5.4 to seal the victory.
Hawthorn finished the match with 65 more disposals (391-326) at an efficiency rating of 79 per cent. The Hawks were able to lead the possession count thanks to the great defensive work of vice-captain Jordan Lewis on Saints’ star Nick Dal Santo, limiting him to just 14 possessions while gathering 22 himself.
What Alastair Clarkson said: “The game was right in the balance at three-quarter time and our guys responded really positively in the last quarter and managed to get away with a really solid win in the end.”
