They say when it rains, it pours – but this wasn’t entirely the case at the MCG last Sunday afternoon. There were only brief showers in the sky, but it rained goals for the Hawks.
With four of our top eight players from lasts year’s ‘best and fairest’ missing – Luke Hodge, Campbell Brown, Shane Crawford and Jordon Lewis – many were expecting a close contest from Dean Bailey’s Demons.
I was watching the game from the Melbourne Cricket Club members’ wing with fellow Hawthorn supporter, Paul. We were at ground level and not under any shelter – we thank our lucky stars that we didn’t get too wet. Both of us were excited about the start of the 2008 season, but we were also slightly nervous, considering the growing expectations placed on our young Hawks.
The game started well for the Hawks, our midfield was on top and our forward line – including first-gamers Cyril Rioli and Cameron Stokes – looked threatening. At the other end of the ground our backline was solid, even without the experienced Trent Croad.
Croad had left the field within the opening minutes, sporting an injured wrist after tackling David Neitz. When he headed to the bench in a great amount of pain, the crowd around me was deathly silent. The loss of Croad meant that the Hawks were one tall player down, and this caused a reshuffle in the backline, with ruckman Robert Campbell picking up Neitz. Simon Taylor was forced to ruck alone for the remainder of the game, against Jeff White and Paul Johnson.
At the quarter-time break the score was Hawthorn 5.5 (35) to Melbourne 1.1 (7). The Hawks’ good start had me feeling relaxed, although I thought we could have been further in front with straighter kicking. The second quarter was much of the same, with Sam Mitchell and Chance Bateman winning in the midfield and Lance “Buddy” Franklin causing some serious headaches for the Demon backline. At half-time the scores read Hawthorn 7.10 (52) to Melbourne 1.5 (11). With a big lead going into the half-time break, I sensed that the second half was going to get even better for the Hawks. The third quarter saw new recruit Stuart Dew answer all questions from his critics, with eight clinical disposals and a great snapping goal from the boundary. At the end of the third quarter, Hawthorn was 15.12 (102) to Melbourne 2.10 (22). The game was all but over, but the Hawks did not take their foot off the throttle in the last quarter, out-scoring the Dees by 8 goals to 4. The siren sounded, and Hawks fans around me jumped to their feet to celebrate a whopping 104-point victory. The final score read Hawthorn 23.16 (154) to Melbourne 6.4 (50). The helpless Dees were outclassed by a bigger, stronger and quicker Hawks outfit.
What a great start to the year for the Hawks. Let’s hope we can bring this good form to Subiaco next Saturday to face the Dockers.
Glenn Jepson - 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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