BRADLEY Hill says he had complete confidence that teammate Paul Puopolo would kick the match-winner after earning a free-kick inside-50 with less than a minute to go.

Hill’s confidence proved spot on.

Puopolo split the big sticks to give the Hawks the lead against the Crows – and a third consecutive three-point win.

“I was thinking he was going to kick it… You don’t want to think he was going to miss it,” Hill said.

“As soon as it came off the boot you could see it was going straight through the middle

“I was on the bench and all of the boys got up and about, we knew there was only 18 seconds to go after he kicked it, so we were pretty excited.”

For Hill, it was his first game this season after sustaining a wrist injury in the lead-up to Round 1.

After a strong opening term, in which Hill had nine disposals, he was helped from the ground with a knee niggle, before returning to have an impact later in the game.

“It felt like I hadn’t played a game in a while,” Hill said after the three-point thriller.

“It was good to get the cobwebs out. I’m sure the next few games I’ll keep improving and start to get back to my best footy.”

Hill finished with 17 disposals and was a conduit between attack and defence, rebounding on four occasions and driving the Hawks into attack on another three.

He said at no point in the game did the Hawks think getting the result was beyond them.

“We fought out the four quarters and it was a good win at the end,” Hill said.

“We’ve had two of them already this year, when someone’s kicked a goal to win just before the siren, and we’ve won our last three games by three points.

“(With five minutes left) we pretty much just said to be composed, we had plenty of time and we just needed to keep playing the way we were playing. We didn’t have to be heroes and try to do too much, we just had to be composed and play the way we play.”

Perhaps fittingly, it was a thrilling win in Shaun Burgoyne’s 300^th game – a man who has made his name by stepping up in the big situations.

Hill joked that it would have been good if Burgoyne had been able to finish it himself.

“Shauny’s a great player, he’s been a great player for Port Adelaide and also for this club,” Hill said.

“To play 300 games is rare for any player, and I’m lucky to be able to play in this game with Shauny… I look up to him.”