WHEN dangerous Crow Eddie Betts had three goals inside the first quarter, Hawthorn defender Ben Stratton was understandably a little bit nervous.
Stratton had the job on Betts in the club’s previous two meetings – shutting the goal-sneak out of both matches, both of which were Hawthorn wins.
“Obviously when you’ve got a bit of a job you’re a bit twitchy when they kick the first goal and another two in the first quarter,” Stratton told MMM.
“I was thinking, that’s three in a quarter, he could kick 12.
But Stratton was able to bounce back after quarter time – and Betts didn’t add to his goal tally in the remaining three quarters.
“You can have bad quarters but you’ve just got to reset and wipe that clean,” he said.
“With a player like Eddie, you’ve got to sort of be on your guard the whole night for sure.
“He got a few out the back goals, so I probably just gave him too much space out the back. I sort of probably lost concentration a few times, and as I said, if you do that on players like Eddie, one minute he’s next to you and the next minute he’s thirty metres out the back.
“(There’s) a bit to work on there, but I was glad I could sort of play a bit better the next couple of quarters.”
After conceding seven goals to the Crows in the opening quarter, the Hawks’ defence was able to tighten up somewhat, conceding just 10 goals in the following three quarters in a high-scoring contest.
Like all sides, Stratton admitted the Hawks “don’t like getting high scores kicked against us” – and would be have a couple of things to work on ahead of Saturday’s match against GWS Giants.