HAWTHORN trailed by two kicks midway through the final quarter against Collingwood on Friday night, but skipper Luke Hodge said he had complete confidence his side would be good enough to bounce back.
The Hawks, who had led for the majority of the clash – but never by more than three kicks, were overhauled by the Magpies in the final term on the back of consecutive goals to Jesse White, Dane Swan and Jarryd Blair.
The Magpies held a slender nine-point advantage, after the Hawks had led by the same margin at three quarter time.
But Hodge said the Hawks knew if they stuck to their guns, they could regain their advantage.
“When we train, we try to put ourselves in all situations – whether you’re up, whether you’re down, whether it’s fairly close,” he said.
“We’ve just got to stick to the processes that we’ve got and hopefully more often than not it will work out our way.
“Occasionally it doesn’t, but we had confidence and the boys just played our way.”
Getting over the line in close games has been part of the Hawks’ success in recent years, but not their forte so far in 2015.
The dual reigning premiers had previously lost by two points to Essendon in Round 2, eight points to Port Adelaide in Round 4, 10 points to GWS Giants in Round 6 and four points to Sydney Swans in Round 8.
However the ten-point win against the Magpies was the Hawks’ fifth in succession and ninth for the season – and a result that has moved them a game clear inside the top four.
“With ten minutes to go it could have gone either way,” Hodge said.
“If you watch how Collingwood have been playing – especially last week against Freo – their pressure has been outstanding and we knew we would need to be up for it.
“It was a fair tussle all game… We were lucky enough to sneak away with a few goals late.”
Hodge was instrumental in the result, collecting 29 disposals and a team-high nine tackles.
He was full of praise for forward Cyril Rioli, who had an impact with and without the ball and finished with five goals.
“He’s got a bit of talent,” Hodge said.
“Having someone down there with that kind of energy, having him close to goal and energetic in the forward 50 is great.”
