HAWTHORN’S three-point win over Port Adelaide in Launceston keeps them in touch with the top eight going into next weekend’s bye, much to the relief of Alastair Clarkson who saw his side scrap their way back onto the winners list on Saturday afternoon.
Following three consecutive losses, the Hawks fell four goals behind during an opening term dominated by the Power, but fought back strongly to keep their finals hopes alive in 2018.
“The importance of the victory is probably just staying in touch with the eight more so than what happens around the bye,” Clarkson said.
“It was really important we got ourselves just ahead of the ledger in terms of being 6-5 now. Had we gone 5-6, your season’s not over but it becomes enormously tough.
“We’re not playing with the polish we’d like, but we’re giving ourselves a chance.”
Clarkson praised the strong work of hard-nosed veterans Shaun Burgoyne, Ben McEvoy and Jarryd Roughead in a tight final quarter.
When the Power surged during a heavily contested final term, it was a goal to Roughead and willing grunt work from the outstanding Burgoyne and McEvoy that eventually saw Hawthorn home.
“It was just a real arm-wrestle,” Clarkson said.
“Late in the game, in the last four or five minutes when we really needed our players to stand tall and be really, really tough and hard in the contest, particularly in and around the scrimmage balls, McEvoy, Burgoyne and Roughead and these types of bigger bodies were really important for us late in the game when the game was right on the line.”
Burgoyne was earlier reported for a high hit on Jared Polec in the first term, but showed no lack of desire after being booked and continued to attack the ball strongly in a best afield display.
“It was a physical game, only nine goals each, and it means there was a lot of congestion,” Clarkson said.
“Shaun’s presence in there was really important for us and I thought he was a really consistent performer right throughout the day for us.”
Read: Five talking points - Round 11
Clarkson acknowledged there is still room for improvement in terms of his side’s offensive output, an area of their game that may come in for close scrutiny before they take on Adelaide at the MCG in Round 13.
“We think we need to get better with the polish with which we take the ball inside 50,” he said.
“Nine goals in a game of footy isn’t going to win you very many games. Unfortunately it didn’t win us the game last week against West Coast. Fortunately today, nine was enough, but only just.”
“Our endeavour was good. We didn’t perhaps finish off some of our work as well as we’d like. We had 59 inside 50s for nine goals. We need to continue to work on that part of our game.”
