The Box Hill Hawks managed a win at home on Sunday, taking a 22-point victory over Williamstown in Round 18.

Box Hill Senior Coach Zane Littlejohn has summed up the performances of every AFL-listed played from the game, with a couple of VFL-listed shout outs.

Harry Morrison

“Obviously super performance from Harry, his leadership and flexibility to play a variety of roles was super important. Finished with 33 (disposals) and kicked three goals, that’s a great return. His attitude and willingness to buy into our program has been exceptional all year and we love having him, but ultimately, we want to make sure that all our AFL boys are getting prepped and are ready to play AFL footy, which Harry’s showing that week in week out which has been great.”

Jai Serong

“Jai’s been ever-reliable, been really consistent in his performance all year at our level, he’s just really lifted the standard of his footy and we love having him with us. But again, like Harry and all our other AFL boys, we want them to make sure they’re continuing to develop and grow at our level and are ready to play AFL footy when called upon, which is really important. But Jai’s just been really consistent, been able to show within our back six or seven, playing a variety of roles, whether it be a defensive role or if he can help us in Hawks ball offence as well. A really solid and consistent performance again from Jai.”

Cam Mackenzie

“Great to have Frenchie come back, from our perspective at Box Hill but obviously he would be disappointed, but his attitude and application to the program was exceptional. I think that was everything in his first quarter, he had 10 disposals in his first quarter and was just really powerful, really clean and really consistent in his performance and was able to have a great balance of inside and outside, was really selfless at times with his role and more importantly for his development. Great for him to attend a lot of centre bounces and also attend a lot of stoppage around the ground and work on his craft, which he’s been working really closely with David Hale and Dave McKay and the midfield coaches at AFL land.”

Henry Hustwaite

“So yeah really pleasing day for Henry, what I love about Henry’s game was the balance of his game. His ability to win the ball inside but also he showed the ability to win the ball on the outside and win some uncontested footy which we probably haven’t seen in Henry’s game in a while and was great return. But he was also able to have his clearances and his tackles, to finish with 24 (disposals) but have real balance in his inside and outside play is great, if he can add that weapon to his game he’s getting closer and closer to AFL availability and selection which is great.”

Bailey Macdonald

“Bailey Mac, I think probably Bailey’s best game for the year. He’s finished with 23 (disposals) but the most important thing we saw was he defended the ground really hard was really hard to play on as a defender. But then as we do love with Baz, his offence was evident and was able to provide great run and drive which is great but collectively on both sides of the ball he was really damaging which we loved. That’s why we would say it’s probably his best game of the year.”

Seamus Mitchell

“Seamus played his role, was really solid, didn’t let us down at any stage, had a few execution moments but again it was execution it wasn’t decision, which as coaches we’ve got to weigh up is it a trend, something that’s continually happening? But it’s not with Seamus, he’s been exceptional for us in that space. So really pleased with Seamus’ ability to play his role, defend really well and help out with Hawks ball as well.”

Cooper Stephens

“Again a nice balanced game from Coop. What I loved around our whole midfield group around our inside mids in Harry Morrison, Cam Mackenzie, Henry Hustwaite and Cooper Stephens was the balance in their work to share the load, spread the love, it wasn’t just reliant on one player, all our mids had a lick of the ice-cream as we say and got a turn and Coop was one of those. Looking powerful at the moment across the ground, so his body is looking after him and that’s credit to him and the work he’s done with the high-performance team. He’s getting good reward off that now and hopefully as we set into the back end of the year he can continue to be really consistent and we get good return from him.”

Ethan Phillips

“Ethan again, really consistent, played his role well, the thing we love with Ethan isn’t just was he does defending or with the football, but ultimately what he does for the rest of his teammates, communication, ability to set the game up. In the first quarter I thought him and Denver really helped us lock the ball in our front end with how they organised the troops in front of them and kept the ball in our front end. We probably didn’t get the reward from that, but ultimately it made Williamstown have to defend the ground for a lot longer and that’s credit to Ethan and Denver as well. As we’re working on with Ethan, is just his Hawks ball stuff and how he can be really attacking at times when he can help us generate a bit more speed on the game.”

Bodie Ryan

“Great return from Bodie, back to what we know Bods can do, really consistent. What we’ve been working really hard with Bodie on is to be hard to play against and I thought he was, he was hard to play against defensively. Had some great moments where you thought he was done but he just got his fist in and fought through it, really impressed with Bodie’s performance. And what made it really impressive is he had a bit of an interrupted weekend, was not feeling great and just to test his mentality out with that and it’s great for his development to know I don’t need to be feeling perfect, but I can still perform. Ultimately that happens this time of year with a lot of players, they’re not feeling 100% but need to just be able to perform and Bodie was able to do that as a young player which is awesome.”

Max Ramsden

“Max had a bit of a task this week up against Tom Downie who is arguable the best big man in the competition, but really hurt us last year when we played Williamstown last year, was best on ground and really got hold of us. Max set himself for this, and really wanted to make this a bit of a statement game and he was able to do that. I thought the first centre bounce he got over the top and then he was the next onto it, so although Max mightn’t have won hit outs, Max’s follow up work, all of those little things is what really made him stand out. A great return from Max, was able to get forward and hit the scoreboard as well, I thought was arguably the most dominant big man on the ground, which is great for Max. A great test for his mentality when it’s put on him a little bit to really step up he was able to do that, so great return from Max.”

Jack O’Sullivan

“Jack just played his role, was really disciplined and diligent in performing his role, showed great leadership at times through the game when he was given a bit more responsibility in that space this week, thought he did that really well. Nice return, was able to hit the scoreboard, would love to kick straight, kicked one goal two from 14 disposals. We’d like to see a bit more pressure but the fact is he’s turning up, playing his role which is important and that’s the consistency now he needs to build in his game as a young player. This is the time of the year that you want to build that consistency as the games become bigger and more important.”

Will McCabe

“Loved Will’s involvement in our Hawks ball, I love when he get’s the ball he’s really composed and has great energy which we love and his teammates are able to feed off that. A really good return, still on some limited minutes but being really strategic and smart with how we return him, it’s going to be frustrating for him but he’s been playing some good footy off the back of that. We’re working really closely with him, now being really hard to play against when it’s his turn to defend and that’s the next growth in his game which we’re seeing at times but it’s now being really consistent in that. The more footy we can get into him, the better he’ll continue to grow and be, but a really exciting prospect.”

Denver Grainger-Barras

“Look a solid start for Denver in the game, as I mentioned earlier with Easy, was able to really help set us up and keep the ball in our end early in the game which is great. Denver had a little lapse through the third quarter, which he’s obviously really disappointed about but what I love is his ability to respond in the last quarter and really bounce back and get back to playing some consistent footy. He’s working really hard in that area of his game to make sure he doesn’t have those lapses and let his footy do the talking, which for a majority of the game he was able to do but then he had some time where he just wasn’t able to get his job done in that moment. But I thought early and we set ourselves to start the game well, I thought Denver was a big driving force of that.”

Jasper Scaife

“Great to have Jasper back out there, kicked two goals had a bit of a purple patch through the second quarter, kicked two really big vital goals, got his hands to a lot of the footy, just wasn’t able to hold onto them all. Now I guess this time of the year for Jasper it’s just about building some consistency in his footy, since he’s joined our footy club he probably unfortunately hasn’t been able to have that, he’s just got to build some consistency in his footy and the rest will take care cause we know he’s a damaging player, kicks the ball really well at goal but we’re just rapt to have him back out there and help build now on that consistency.”

Clay Tucker

“What we saw with Tuck was just energy, effort, for bigger periods of the game. Two weeks in a row now we haven’t seen as much of is when Tuck gets fatigued, those minutes, that time of the game’s now getting smaller and he’s having longer influences on the game, playing some big minutes and he helped Max out in the ruck so really held his own in that space. What we loved was he’s able to get forward and take two really big catches and kick two really vital goals which is really exciting. Now, like everyone at this time of year you want to stay really consistent and the challenge for him is to do that continually and week after week put that performance in.”

A couple of Box Hill player shout outs …

Jake Arundell

“Great to have Snake back in our program, second game back this week. Dare I say picked up where he left off last year for us. His work rate and his ability to link up from our back end to our front end and his ability to defend the ground was elite. Just rapt to have Jake back and playing an important role and really buying back into our program, was exceptional.”

Billy Hicks

“Billy’s second game with us as our 23rd, we made him work pretty hard to get his opportunity, he had some areas of his game that he just needed to tidy up a little bit and was able to do that. Since he’s come in he’s been really consistent in his performance and really pleased with Billy.”