WITH his side back on the winner's list following a 70-point victory over the Bulldogs, Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson was generally pleased with proceedings at Aurora Stadium on Sunday.
Alongside Jarryd Roughead, who booted seven goals for the afternoon, Clarkson found particular praise for club captain Luke Hodge, who starred with a career-high 44 disposals, including nine clearances, two goals and four score assists.
"He played well for us, Hodgey. He's been reasonably strong for us in the three games to date," Clarkson said, perhaps understating Hodge's huge influence on the match.
"He's got a role that plays midfield, defence and at different stages forward.
"He just carried out his role and sometimes that means winning a lot of the football and sometimes it doesn't.
"Today he got on the end of the ball a fair bit.
"A lot of that ball was inside and hard work that he did, which was really pleasing and he got rewarded in that regard."
With 25 touches at half-time, Hodge had been able to do as he pleased around the ground while the Bulldogs had struggled to come to terms with the loss of key players to injury, particularly midfielder Mitch Wallis who would have been a likely opponent for Hodge if not for a knee in the back during the first term.
By following Hodge's lead, the Hawks had managed to win the clearance, contested possession and tackle counts and feasted on a whopping 156 more disposals than the Bulldogs as a result.
"Our midfield had a real focus on trying to win the inside ball and the clearance rate," Clarkson said.
"We knew we needed to compete really strongly in that area."
With the round two loss to Essendon now behind them, the Hawks will turn their attention to an Anzac Day contest against Port Adelaide which Clarkson said would be an honour for the club and players – as well as a highly anticipated rematch of the nail-biting 2014 preliminary final.
"We get a great chance to pay some respect to a generation of gentlemen and women who fought for our country and gave us the chance to do what we do today" he said.
"It's going to be a big game, they're a formidable opponent … and we're going to need to play our very best to be competitive against the Port side.
"We need to recover well and get ourselves ready for what's going to be a pretty fierce contest."
RELATED
Match report: Hawks breeze home Five talking points: Hawthorn v Western Bulldogs
