Hawks swoop to unsettle leaders

IT was the running of the bulls at Aurora Stadium yesterday and ended with high-flying Fremantle walking away gored by a rampaging Hawthorn.

The AFL ladder leader’s clash with the fourth-placed premiers produced a bonejarring contest that the home side dominated from the opening bounce to produce a surprise 72-point thrashing in front of 16,792 fans.

Freo star Nat Fyfe walked off with a corked thigh and Hawk Taylor Duryea a badly strained shoulder.

Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson was surprised more damage was not done as the Hawks went about their best win of the year.

“It was a very physical game,” Clarkson said.

“That’s what happens when you’ve got two bullish sides going at each other, there’s going to be hard contests.

“Fyfe is such a bull through the middle of the ground and so is [David] Mundy — they’re big men.

“So there’s going to be a lot of collisions.

“That one in particular with Duryea and [Chris] Mayne in a marking contest, it was a heavy one and I’m sure both would have pulled up a bit sore.”

Hawthorn’s plan was plain to see.

Ruckmen David Hale and Ben McEvoy were to out-position Aaron Sandilands at bounces and throw-ins to try to quell his dominance.

Plan B was for the Hawks onballers to “shark” the tap and attack the ball-carriers.

Sandilands couldn’t be stopped, racking up 29-9 hitouts in the opening term alone and 40-22 to halftime.

Plan B was a winner, with Hawthorn’s onball crew dominating the clearances against the AFL’s No. 1 clearance team, and with a pack mentality they pounced on the Dockers, particularly Fyfe, making his possessions almost impossible to be use damagingly.

The Dockers had the ball inside 50 almost as regularly as the Hawks but they said goodbye to it as quickly.

Hawk Josh Gibson (19) had more touches than anyone to halftime followed closely by fellow-defenders Grant Birchall (15) and Liam Shiels (13).

Onballer Sam Mitchell outdid them all, compiling 39 touches, 10 marks, five clearances and a goal.

Lachie Neale kicked Fremantle’s only goal in the first half at the 12-minute mark of the first term.

Hayden Ballantyne and Mayne were being thrashed and Matthew Pavlich did good work up the ground but the Dockers needed him as a target closer to the sticks.

“We placed a lot of pressure on the Fremantle ball-carrier and they could never really get any flow in their game,” Clarkson said.

“And that was from really early in the game as well and indicative of the way that we wanted to approach the game.

“To win the clearances, the supply through the middle of the ground, was important. We won centre bounces and clearances between the arcs and that’s difficult to do against Fremantle.

“They’ve got an outstanding midfield and a ruckman who’s the biggest bloke in the league.

“So that’s a first-class effort by our guys who rolled through the middle of the ground.”

Hawthorn kicked 17 goals without contributions from dangermen Cyril Rioli and Jack Gunston and with Jarryd Roughead sidelined by surgery to remove a melanoma.

“To come down here and win as well as we did, we are really pleased with that. But we expect to perform well on this ground because it’s our home away from home and we play well here,” Clarkson said.

“We are pleased with our performance but we are not going to get carried away because we now have a six-day break into another tough game up to Sydney next week. “