Hawthorn’s Blue-Collar Grit Outlasts Sydney’s Star Power
In a surprising display of grit and determination, Sam Mitchell’s Hawthorn outfit, often labelled the “Hollywood Hawks” for their perceived glitz, proved their mettle under the Melbourne Cricket Ground’s Thursday night lights. Against a Sydney Swans side known for its dynamic, crowd-pleasing style, the Hawks rolled up their sleeves and executed a disciplined performance to secure a 17-point victory, with the final score reading 14.15 (99) to 13.4 (82).
The crucial difference on the night wasn’t solely in the scoreboard; it was forged in the trenches, in Hawthorn’s relentless pursuit of the contest when the ball was up for grabs in the midfield.
While the Swans boasted high-priced talent, it was the Hawks’ more understated, yet effective, forward line that made the difference. Jack Gunston, Mabior Chol, and Mitch Lewis, whose combined salaries barely rival that of Sydney’s marquee recruit, Charlie Curnow, all played pivotal roles. In stark contrast, the Swans’ big-money signing found himself largely ineffective after a brief flurry of two goals in the opening term. He managed to touch the ball only once in the entire second half, a telling statistic in a game decided by such fine margins.
Gunston, a familiar nemesis for Sydney from his involvement in Hawthorn’s premiership triumphs of the 2010s, inflicted further pain on this new iteration of the Swans. His fourth goal of the evening ultimately sealed the victory, a win that had seemed improbable earlier in the third quarter when Sydney had surged to a 20-point advantage.
This was undoubtedly a significant night for Sam Mitchell and his coaching staff. While the absence of Swans stars Isaac Heeney and Errol Gulden no doubt aided their cause, it remains a pertinent question how much impact even those dynamic players could have had against the arm wrestle Mitchell had engineered.
A Tactical Shift Sparks Hawthorn’s Comeback
Following a frenetic first term that saw a remarkable 11 goals kicked, the complexion of the match shifted dramatically when Mitchell deployed an extra player behind the ball. This tactical adjustment slowed the pace of Hawthorn’s ball movement, a change that unexpectedly suited their strengths. With a greater command of the contested ball, the Hawks found multiple avenues to score. The contested possession count, which favoured Sydney by a narrow margin at halftime, swung decisively in Hawthorn’s favour, finishing at a staggering 26. Swans coach Dean Cox identified this as a major contributor to his team’s defeat.
Despite their dominance in entries inside 50 during the second term, Hawthorn’s inaccuracy prevented them from capitalising fully. However, as the Swans began to tire, a factor potentially exacerbated by their five-day break between matches, the Hawks made them pay.
Mitchell elaborated on the team’s performance, highlighting the stark contrast in intensity compared to recent games. “If you looked at our GWS game and the Sydney game, and you looked at just intensity around the ball and the speed of the bodies and the pressure that we were able to put on tonight… the difference between those two games was quite significant in how we behaved,” he stated. “And if we can sustain the type of pressure and intensity that we got tonight, we’ll be a really hard side to beat. But if we drop off, we don’t have to look too far in our rearview mirror to realise how vulnerable we can be.”
Swans’ Reliance on Speed Tested
The Hawks’ control of the contested ball effectively narrowed Sydney’s path to victory, forcing them to rely heavily on their trademark high-speed ball movement from defence.
This reliance on speed has delivered spectacular results for the Swans this season, including an 18-goal half against Carlton and a seven-goal opening term the previous week. However, against a well-drilled and high-pressure opposition like Hawthorn, this style proved difficult to sustain.
“We don’t want to be so reliant on one method to score, and that’s you can’t do that from your back half,” Cox admitted.
Charlie Curnow, a formidable presence in the opening quarter when the game was open and he was able to roam, found himself locked in a physical battle with the larger Tom Barrass for much of the match. His return of five goals in his first three games for Sydney paints a picture more aligned with his injury-plagued final year at Carlton than his dominant, back-to-back Coleman Medal winning seasons.
His subdued performance after quarter-time echoed his previous encounter at the MCG last July, where he was similarly nullified by Hawthorn’s key defenders. Despite a full pre-season, Curnow’s struggles are attributed partly to his unfamiliarity with a new system, though Cox noted his inability to halve aerial contests as he had in earlier games.
“The ability for Charlie to perform consistently, he’s still working his way through at our football club,” Cox commented. “One thing we try and say is, at all times, compete as hard as you possibly can, and try and read the cues up the ground when we are bringing the ball through. There’s some inconsistencies throughout that at times, and it’ll be a work in progress. We’re going to put time into [it].”
Mitchell’s bold decision to deploy an extra defender carried the risk of allowing Sydney to create overlaps from their defence, particularly through the damaging Nick Blakey or Callum Mills. However, the relentless pressure from Hawthorn’s small forwards, Connor Macdonald and Nick Watson, along with the unexpected contribution from Chol, forced the Swans into launching long, high balls towards an outnumbered Curnow. This made it difficult for him to bring the ball to ground and initiate the stoppages his team needed to regain momentum.
“There was an intensity about the whole game right to the last five seconds,” Mitchell reflected. “My son actually texted me, and he said, ‘I wasn’t sure we’d won until eight seconds to go’, and it felt like that in the game. And so for our players to put together 120 minutes of really high, intense footy, I thought that was a good sign.”
