Drouin rises to the challenge against Power
Drouin collected another four premiership points on Saturday that were as important as any of the 20 it had earned in the earlier rounds.
The 25-point win at Wonthaggi was the Hawks’ sixth from nine outings and has them fourth on the ladder, equal on points with the second and third teams and, more importantly, two wins clear of the sixth side.
But Saturday’s was a hard-fought victory, the gap at the finish – Drouin won 12-6 to 7-11 - comfortable enough but not a true indication of how tightly the game played out.
Victories are never easy to come by at Wonthaggi and with some key “outs – notably inter-league wingman Tom Barr, key forward Jamie Ferguson and injured defender Nathan Guy – it was a real danger game for the Hawks.
Charlie Bethune was among the “ins” for his first senior match.
Drouin’s winning break came with its dominance of the third quarter.
In what could be described as “the Eddie Morris quarter”, although he did have plenty of helpers, the Hawks stretched a threepoint half time lead to 30 points.
The game looked the Hawks when Morris bobbed up for the first goal of the last term after four minutes.
Morris gets “tagged” every week but it is debatable whether sacrificing a good player/s to try to do that job is worth it.
Wonthaggi did fight back in the last quarter.
Three successive goals got it within 19 points but Drouin held off any further attacks and made the end gap 25 points when Rhys Salter celebrated his 100th senior game with a goal after the siren, his second for the day.
The Hawks started quickly with a snapped goal from congestion by Jackson Kos and another by Bailey Beck capitalising on a good passage of play started in defence in the first five minutes.
It was 3-0 to 0-2 when Bailey Beck got his second goal 20 minutes into the quarter.
Wonthaggi lifted its play but had only five behinds on the board when the quartertime siren rang.
If the third quarter was Morris’ the first was ruckman Bob McCallum’s.
He not only won well in the ruck contests but bobbed up all around the ground winning possessions as well as taking some timely marks in Drouin’s defence.
But there had been other good contributors including Todd Beck who gave plenty of drive from a wing.
Wonthaggi could well have been in front at half time.
It kicked 4-1 in the second term to 2-3 to get within three points but had also failed to score with three “not too hard” set shots at goal.
Power’s run and good delivery by foot set up their chances especially to tall forward Mitch Betson who kicked two of the goals in the term.
It was a much more intense Drouin in the third quarter.
The pressure applied by the Hawks in their forward line kept the ball there and Wonthaggi was only rarely able to get the ball forward.
Goals by Chris Robinson, Bailey and Todd Beck in the first eight minutes were just reward.
It was another 10 minutes of hard, close-in contested play before Bailey Beck got the next, his fourth, and Drouin closed out the quarter when a long kick by Morris to an open forward area enabled Salter to run onto the ball to set up the 30point lead.
Throughout the last quarter and especially after the first goal Drouin seemed to have enough up its sleeve although Wonthaggi certainly didn’t go down without fighting out the contest to the siren.
It had a major setback when one of its best players, Troy Harley, limped from the ground with a hamstring strain only a few minutes from the start.
The Hawks’ key players all stood up in a match where the stakes were high for the side.
Morris and McCallum were superb, centre-half back Liam Anderson great under pressure, and Robinson, Bailey and Todd Beck and coach Jordan Kingi all showed the way by example.
The back line group overall did the job required of them and all players were contributors.
Bailey Beck finished with a well-deserved four goals, Todd Beck and Salter two each and single goals were kicked by Fletcher Robertson-Edgar, Kos, McCallum and Morris.