Hawks 3rds overdue win
Drouin thirds finally got through the door they’ve been knocking on for a few weeks when they defeated Morwell by nine points, 6-3 to 4-6.
They had to hang on desperately in the last quarter to withstand a Tiger team trying to keep alive its hopes of pushing for the “five”.
It was a closely fought first half, Drouin leading by a point – 1-3 to 1-2 - after a well-judged mark and goal on the siren by Regan Hodge.
Morwell didn’t get its second goal until Drouin had kicked six goals in a row for a five-goal lead early in the final quarter.
But Morwell got the last three of the game, and three behinds, to keep the match alive until the final siren.
Best for the Hawks were Aaron Warner, Charlie Bethune, Ryan Taylor, Hodge and Cody Harrison.
The goals were all singles, from Hodge, Ryan Taylor, Fletcher Robertson-Edgar, Jack Hallyburton, Owen Walsh and Trent Kearney.
The downside of the win was a suspected broken arm or wrist for Sean O’Callaghan.
Drouin’s fourths kicked three first quarter goals to go to the break with a four-point lead.
But that was the end of the story for them.
At the finish it was a solid 10-10 to 34 win for Morwell.
Better players for the Hawks were Logan Corbet, Andrew Hobday, Christian and Fletcher Robertson-Edgar, Darcy Durham and Trent Kearney.
Hobday kicked two of the goals and Jack Fraser the other.
Drouin’s loss at Morwell on Saturday can be summed up in segments.
Two quarters when the Hawks were highly competitive and two when they were missing in action.
Morwell won 24-10 to 8-10 on the back of eight first quarter goals and the same amount in the final term.
After only 21 minutes the Tigers had posted eight goals before Drouin steadied the ship a bit to finish the quarter with 2-3, the goals coming from marks by Sean Proctor and Bob McCallum who were both on the end of lead up work by Jordan Kingi.
McCallum’s mark soaring over a pack was Drouin’s “mark of the year” to that stage, a point that might be now be debated after Michael Theodoridis’ last quarter “speccy”.
The Tigers took in their stride the loss 20 seconds into the game of key defender jack Brown with a groin strain.
Their early dominance – and sharp-shooting at goal – continued in the early stages of the second quarter.
Plenty of holes were found in the defensive lines of the Hawks until they were able to apply a bit more pressure upfield and especially in their front half of the ground.
Liam Anderson got Drouin’s two goals for the quarter within two minutes, the first from a mark on the lead and the second a quick snap from a tight angle.
At half time it was 14-2 to 4-7.
The third term was Drouin’s best.
It added four goals against the Tigers’ 2-4 and from late in the first quarter until the final break had matched their opponents on the scoreboard.
After the slow start by his side McCallum did much to lead the far more competitive effort and Theodoridis provided strength and energy whether in attack or during several stints on the ball.
But Drouin’s poor disposal continued to hurt.
Even some of the better ball-winning players were guilty of basic kicking and handball errors.
Morwell made them pay dearly.
Anderson’s great pack mark in the goal square to kick his third for the match late in the third term gave the Hawks a chance of containing the margin to a reasonable amount by match end.
That idea soon flew out the window.
Theodoridis’ “speccy” was about the only highlight of the last quarter for Drouin as the Tigers ran in eight goals with little resistance.
Some bright spots for the Hawks were Anderson, gaining touch especially with his marking after missing much of the early part of the season with injury, and the return of talented James McKellar who had also missed a large slab of the year.
Theodoridis also found better touch pulling in a number of strong contested marks, winning hard balls and putting ground level pressure on opponents.
Liam Axford and Jordan Kingi were best of the smaller on-ball brigade and Darcy Irwin, Dan Seri, Clayton Kingi, Luke Ferguson and Tom Barr battled hard.
Post-match coach McCallum succinctly summed up much of the reason for the 96-point loss: “you can’t defend turnovers from errors due to poor skills”.