The Hawthorn VFLW team had its first hit-out for the pre-season in an intraclub practice match at Mulgrave Reserve on Saturday.

Despite the terrible weather conditions, Coach Paddy Hill was pleased with game.

“It was a little bit disappointing with the rain, but I think they made the best out of a bad situation and still put up a decent score on the board and some good play,” said Hill. 

“It was good to be able to just put some of the stuff we’ve been working on across the pre-season into practice.”

The teams for the day were split into Yellow and Pink guernseys, with a few players coming from other clubs to fill both sides.

The girls came out firing, with the first quarter being the highest scoring term for the match.

Claire Dyett became the first goal kicker of the game, followed by Jess Sibley and Lily Kelly. 

Paris Stahl also showed her strength up forward, registering back-to-back goals during the third quarter.  

Not only did the Hawks demonstrate their skills up forward, but they showed their determination in defence, with Emily Gilder in particular strong, despite the multiple forward entries against her side.  

Having worked on a lot over a long pre-season, Paddy said the focus for the game was to keep it pretty simple.

“It was mainly just about how do we want to move the ball, how do we want to defend, and then just being really smart around the footy and the contested situations.”

The multiple goal kickers from the day were the standouts of the match. 

“Claire Dyett was really good today and really energetic up forward as was Jess Sibley, who also kicked a couple of goals, so I was pretty happy with that.

“I also really liked the work of our inside mids. Peschke’s had nearly 18 months since she played a game with her achilles, so to see her running around and being really active and getting plenty of the footy was really good.”  

The Hawks will play in their first official practice match against Collingwood this Saturday, 11:30am at Box Hill City Oval.