When Josh Gibson crashed back to earth after a heavy marking collision and joined the hobbled Liam Shiels on the bench midway through the third quarter, the Hawks were down to one fit player on the pine. Having lost Xavier Ellis before the break, Hawthorn were undermanned and under siege as the Lions threatened briefly to mount another stirring comeback. Gibson returned to the fray soon after, but Shiels was far slower to come back on, robbing the Hawks of valuable midfield grunt for much of the third term.

With the breeze favouring them in the opening quarter, the Hawks may feel they could have had the match wrapped up by the first break. While they managed to nail three majors, they also missed a number of gilt-edged opportunities and finished with 3.8 for the term. Their 18-point lead was definitely handy in greasy conditions but a six-goal break may have just about put the match to bed early – and the Hawks certainly had the chances to do so.

Conditions were far from perfect for power forwards on Sunday, but for a little while during the second quarter Jonathan Brown and Lance Franklin showed just how damaging they could be. First it was Brown who popped up with a pair of majors to reinvigorate the Lions – but even his efforts were soon overshadowed by Franklin. The big Hawk dobbed two crackers in the space of a minute – the second particularly remarkable as he bent it home from long range to bring the crowd to life and give the home side a 22-point break at half-time.

Having suffered horribly through injury in recent seasons, Xavier Ellis must have been hoping his luck had changed for his most recent comeback. But the nightmare was renewed shortly before half-time in Launceston when the skilful midfielder was subbed out and ushered up the race. The nature of the injury remained a mystery as the afternoon progressed but that it looms as another crushing setback for the luckless Ellis was never in doubt.

Hawthorn president Andrew Newbold snapped back at recent comments from AFL Tasmania during his pre-match address to members in Launceston. Newbold appeared to suggest the Hawks felt undervalued and disrespected by talk of the island state preferring to have a team ‘to call its own’, and highlighted the club’s work in fostering a rich relationship with the Tasmanian football community. Regardless of the politics at play, though, the 15,796-strong crowd at Aurora Stadium was heavily dominated by Hawks fans who enjoyed every minute as their side chalked up another big win at their southern fortress.