The midfield battle between GWS and Hawthorn was always going to be a pivotal element of the Round 15 clash.
The Giants rank second for clearances in the league (against the Hawks’ 16th) and third for contested possessions (14th).
These areas are the primary strength of the Giants’ and they displayed this at full force on Saturday night.
Leon Cameron’s side won clearances by 23 and contested possessions by 55 - in hindsight, it was impressive that the Hawks were able to get within 11 points of the Giants despite these discrepancies.
Read: Five talking points - Hawthorn v Giants
The Giants are able to generate an ascendancy in these areas by the breadth of players that are able to contribute.
On Saturday night, the Giants, led by captain Callan Ward with 11, had nine players record multiple clearances whereas the Hawks had just four players with at least two clearances.
Similarly, the Giants had 11 players with double-digit contested possession numbers while the Hawks had just three.
One area that the Hawks dominated on Saturday night was tackling.
Ranking third in the competition for tackles, Hawthorn laid 108 tackles on the Giants, 36 more than the home side.
It was the best tackling effort the Hawks have recorded since their Round 4 win over Melbourne when they laid 113 tackles with a 39 differential over the Demons.
