Hawthorn delivered Alastair Clarkson the best gift of all for his 300th game as the club's coach, with a dominant 52 point win over Fremantle in Perth last night. It was very much the new on display, with smatterings of the old.
The match was in essence a 2 on 2 duel between the respective team’s loose men in defence. Whilst the Hawks duo of Jack Gunston and James Sicily dominated in zone off roles floating unchecked across half back, their counterparts for the Dockers were largely anonymous. The 2 players resembled sweepers in a soccer-like set up and this, along with their long kicking skills in counterattack solidified the team's defence. In the early stages when the Hawks forward line was pushing up high, the contest resembled an ‘apple core’, fought between the two 50 metre arcs, with the Hawks constantly getting out the back when facilitated by Sicily and Gunston on the counter. Unfortunately Sicily’s fabulous performance was marred by an unacceptable display of attitude directed at team mate Taylor Duryea in the throes of half time which might see him sent to Box Hill next week as penance. After the match, Alastair Clarkson diminished the altercation by saying he was ‘fine’ with it, but there is always a loaded dice that goes hand in hand with that term and one can presume this issue is likely to be addressed with Sicily behind closed doors. As for the old, Clarko once more bucked trends by ignoring the recent fad of head to head duels in the midfield and played Daniel Howe in an old fashioned tagging role. Howe was again outstanding, nullifying Nat Fyfe's influence and taking things to another level by kicking 2 pivotal goals. The effect Howe has had on the team's prospects since assuming a 'taggers' role reminds this old scribe of the effect James ‘The Freak’ Morrissey had on the 1991 Flag when placed in a similar role. Howe’s bulking presence offers protection for the likes of Tom Mitchell and Liam Shiels. This affords them greater control in the midfield which is evident from the team's recent ascendency in contested football. Thinking back to Matt Priddis' Brownlow Medal from a few years back, Mitchell must be a smokey for this year’s ‘Charlie’. The youth production line raised its middle finger once more to its many detractors with the debut of Connor Glass who looked brilliant with his reading of the play and dash off half back. The most pleasing aspect of the display was the universal intent of the 22 red hot goers. This augurs well for the present and future of the club, when you look at the effect that the return of many incumbents (currently on the sidelines) will have. The team's recovery from a poor start to the season has been based around young players whose hard work is more than compensating for their lack of experience and composure. Exemplifying this is our aggressive counter attack from defence by the aforementioned duo as well as our superb defensive forward trio in Taylor Duryea, Will Langford and Ryan Schoenmakers who set up many second chance opportunities. Consider the amazing talent yet to return: Cyril Rioli with his sublime class and precocious x-factor, James Frawley and Ben Stratton balancing out the back half, together with scything rebounder Grant Birchall. Add to this a fit and firing Jaeger O’Meara from 2018 onwards and Hawthorn's future looks very bright. Postscript: Other than being Clarko's 300th game coaching the Hawks, this match brought another milestone in being Shaun Burgoyne's 100th consecutive game playing for Hawthorn. I was dismayed to see Fox Footy's homage to Shaun during the half time break featuring footage of Peter Burgoyne which one can presume was in error. This was lazy journalism and very disrespectful to an icon of the game.