On a wintery Saturday night in Melbourne, the Hawthorn faithful that couldn’t make it to Adelaide headed to London instead… well, the London Tavern in Richmond that is.
Women at Hawthorn (WAH) of which I am a committee member, hosted the event and welcomed all supporters; women and men alike, to watch the game in a friendly pub atmosphere. There was a lot of chatter (which is common place at WAH functions) before the game as the crowd enjoyed their complimentary drink, stocked up on raffle tickets and waited with nervous anticipation about the upcoming game.
With the WAH committee roaming the room and chatting to the guests, there was a definite buzz in the air with over 100 sets of eyes fixed on the plasma to watch our boys run through the banner at AAMI stadium. Could this be the night that the Hawks break their drought of 14 years and finally pull off a win against the Crows in their home town?
Most of us took up the opportunity to have a punt on the first and last goal kickers. Adelaide’s Bernie Vince was the first to score, much to the dismay of the Hawks crowd, but to the benefit of the lucky ticket holder who took home the $50 'first goal' cash prize.
The Franklin-Bock match-up was one to watch, especially in the first term with Bock holding off the popular forward early but our ‘Buddy’ still managed three shots at goal, unfortunately all unsuccessful.
It was a nervous second quarter with Franklin being reported and arguably our best runner on the ground; Chance Bateman, sidelined for the rest of the game with a hamstring injury. ‘Oh no, this isn’t looking good!’ seemed to be the unspoken words of the Hawthorn faithful.
At half time party pies and sausage rolls rolled out, and the game was living up to its hype as an extraordinary battle by two of the top teams.
The WAH committee were hard at work raising awareness about our next function scheduled in September at a secret location. Keep your eye on the website for further details.
The third quarter saw the lead change several times and the crowd at the London responded with lots of cheering and air punches as well as groans and stomping when our rivals scored.
It was a nail biting final term with the Crows just three points up at the last break. Everyone was sitting on the edge of their seats as the Crows got the first goal of the last quarter which put them further in front. The Hawks were not done. Luke Hodge kicked the match winning final goal and earned a very happy WAH supporter $50. A deafening cheer erupted in the room as the final siren sounded.
We sang the song together with great passion and pride; we love our club and we play to win! There was a great sense of relief and much elation for our Mighty Hawks and dreams of September glory.
What a great way to watch the match, in a friendly environment with like-minded Hawks fans.
Mandy Fellowes - From the Outer
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily the views of the Hawthorn Football Club.
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