The Mitchell & O'Meara combination for years to come #AFLDockersHawks
— Franky Tomaras (@FrankyTomaras) July 29, 2018
The Rundown
The Hawks headed west to meet Fremantle for their first ever game at Perth Stadium in front of a loud purple army of 41,845.
The game was a month out from the 2018 finals series and the result of the match had ramifications for both sides.
The 59-point loss ended the Dockers finals hopes and the win meant Hawthorn were still in the finals race.
Tom Mitchell ran amock in the midfield gathering 42 possessions, seven clearances and kicking two goals. He was assisted by Jaeger O’Meara (33 disposals and six clearances) and Shaun Burgoyne (20 disposals and seven clearances).
Up forward the Hawks had 11 individual goal scorers, however it was Luke Breust who was most damaging with four goals to his name.
The Star
Tom Mitchell with his 42 disposals.
At the time the midfielder was the favourite to win the Brownlow and his impressive performance against the Dockers did nothing to hurt his chances.
Mitchell’s best on ground performance earnt him the three votes on Brownlow night.
The Moment
Luke Breust had a field day up forward ending the game with four goals straight.
None were better than a dribble goal from the pocket at the mid-way mark of the second quarter.
Breust faked turning back inside and at then changed and headed back towards the boundary and kicked a miraculous goal a metre out from the boundary line.
The goal extended the Hawks lead to 28 points and it looked as though everything was going our way.
The Coach
"You don’t go into the game, especially with how tight the ladder is, you don’t go into the game looking for anything else except to get the four points so to win by a comfortable margin is really pleasing.” - Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson
FREMANTLE 3.3 3.5 4.9 7.11 (53)
HAWTHORN 5.2 8.6 14.8 17.10 (112)
GOALS
Fremantle: Darcy, Banfield, Langdon, Mundy, Brayshaw, Tucker, Ryan
Hawthorn: Breust 4, Gunston 2, Mitchell 2, Schoenmakers 2, Puopolo, Roughead, Shiels, Miles, Burgoyne, Hardwick, O'Meara
BEST
Fremantle: Mundy, Neale, Langdon, Brayshaw, S.Hill
Hawthorn: Mitchell, Breust, O'Meara, Stratton, Shiels, Burgoyne
INJURIES
Fremantle: Cam Sutcliffe (left hamstring)
Hawthorn: Nil
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Fisher, Haussen, Dalgleish
Official crowd: 41,845 at Optus Stadium