ASSISTANT Coach Adem Yze says the Hawks cannot afford to focus solely on Sydney Swans key forwards Lance Franklin and Kurt Tippett going into Saturday night’s match at ANZ Stadium.
Franklin and Tippett helped guide the Swans to victory against Brisbane Lions with three goals each at the weekend, but Yze said the Swans had a number of potent forward options the Hawks would need to be wary of.
Marking Franklin (39 goals) and Tippett (25 goals) will likely be tasked to multiple players, and Yze said the Hawks would be looking for another group defensive effort.
“We’ll have varying players that go to those two guys, but their whole forward line is fairly potent, so we can’t put too much time and effort just into those two players,” he said.
“They’ve got a lot of goalkicking midfielders – Luke Parker’s kicked 14 goals for the year, Josh Kennedy goes forward and can play deep at times, and Dan Hannebery hits the scoreboard as well.
“It’s very similar to the way we play – we know their midfielders can drift forward and kick goals, so we’ll be wary of that as well.”
Now-injured defender James Frawley held Franklin goal-less earlier this season, but the Hawks will have a number of tall options to call on, including Brian Lake, Josh Gibson and swingmen Matt Spangher and Ryan Schoenmakers.
Yze said the Hawks’ defensive efforts in last week’s win against ladder-leader Fremantle had been impressive, but there was still room to improve.
The Hawks restricted the Dockers to just 43 points, their lowest score of the year.
“The boys were terrific last week, but we moved on pretty quickly from that,” Yze said.
“We started looking towards Sydney on Monday night, so the boys know what’s coming.
“We’ll go into the game with a lot of confidence, but knowing that this is probably one of the more potent forward lines to come up against.”
The importance of this week’s game hasn’t been lost on the Hawks, with another crucial four points up for grabs.
The Swans sit one win above the Hawks on the ladder – and came out on top when the sides met in Round 8 this year, by four points.
A win for the visitors this week would boost their chances of a top-two finish.
“We’ve had some really good games against the Swans and we were really disappointed we lost last time we played,” Yze said.
“At this time of year, it’s one of those games that we really need to win to cement our spot in the top four.”
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