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The Rundown

It had been a tough month for the Hawks.

In the four weeks leading up to their game with the Eagles the Hawks had suffered three losses (Sydney, Essendon and Brisbane) and had the bye.

They headed into their Round 15 match sitting in 12th position on the ladder on five wins and eight losses.

Read: Rivalry quiz: Eagles

The reining premiers were sitting in fourth position following a convincing 35-point win against Essendon at home the previous week.

Nic Naitanui was playing his first game for the year returning from his second knee reconstruction and Oliver Hanrahan made his debut for the Hawks.

The Star

Jaeger O’Meara was outstanding in the midfield.

In one of his best games of the year, O’Meara collected 36 disposals and had 11 clearances.

It was an all-round performance, with the classy mid laying 10 tackles and having six rebound 50s.

He also pushed forward and had three shots on goal.

Unfortunately O’Meara was unable to convert his scoring opportunities, which seemed to be the theme for the day as the Hawks registered 17 behinds.

The Moment

It was a see-sawing match with seven lead changes in the second half.

With a minute and a half to go scores were level. The Eagles had just kicked a point and Shaun Burgoyne was kicking in.

Burgoyne boots the ball long down the middle in a hope to get a quick score.

The ball makes its way to the centre of the ground to a marking contest, the Eagles regain possession and the ball gets flicked out to Oscar Allen.

Allen kicks long to the top of the square to the game hero Jack Darling (five goals) who made a contest. The ball drops front and centre collected by Jamie Cripps who snaps the match winning goal.

The six points from Cripps goal was the margin at the final siren.

The Coach

"I thought at different stages of the game we really troubled West Coast. They’re a good side. We brought a really competitive brand of footy against them today. It’s just disappointing for our lads that we didn’t get across the line. It would have been a good scalp to get.” – Clarkson

HAWTHORN   3.3       3.6       7.13     9.17 (71)
WEST COAST   3.5       6.8       7.8       11.11 (77)

GOALS
Hawthorn: Breust, Nash, Gunston, Worpel, Burgoyne, Hanrahan, Smith, Henderson, Howe
West Coast: Darling 5, Cripps 3, Ryan 2, Shuey

BEST
Hawthorn: O'Meara, Worpel, Impey, Howe, Shiels, Smith
West Coast: Shuey, Darling, Gaff, Sheppard, Redden, Sheed

INJURIES
Hawthorn: Nil
West Coast: Hutchings (hamstring)

Reports: Nil

Umpires: Stephens, Harris, Wallace

Official crowd: 31,895 at the MCG