HAWTHORN won’t put more time into stopping champion Gold Coast midfielder Gary Ablett at the expense of nullifying other talented Suns midfielders, Assistant Coach Cameron Bruce says.
While Ablett is one of the best players in the competition, the Hawks know the Suns have players who can inflict just as much damage as the dual Brownlow Medallist.
Ablett leads the Suns in all the key stats – including disposals, contested possessions and clearances – but there are two other players who feature second and third in each of those areas and pose a serious threat.
It is in those players, talented midfielders Dion Prestia and David Swallow, where the danger lies.
Prestia in particular has been outstanding this year, averaging 29.3 disposals, 12.4 contested possessions, 5.7 clearances and 1.8 centre clearances.
He is ranked number one at the Suns for uncontested possessions, though, with an average of 17.1 per game this year.
“They’re players that we’ll have to really respect because they’ve been doing it consistently,” Bruce said.
“We can’t get trapped into focusing too much on ‘Gaz’ at the expense of those other guys getting a lot of the footy.
“It’ll be a good test for our midfield and like most weeks, the game will be won in the middle.”
The Hawks will need to stop Ablett though, who will this time find himself in different company to the man who applied the clamps in the Round 4 meeting between the two sides.
On that night, young Hawthorn midfielder Will Langford, who is currently out of the side, had the job on the champion Sun and although he still managed 35 disposals, Ablett failed to have his usual impact.
The Hawks acknowledge that a player of his stature will get the footy; it’s what he does with it that matters.
Hawthorn took a similar approach to Collingwood’s gun midfielder Scott Pendlebury, Dane Swan and Dayne Beams last week with great success.
The trio failed to have their usual impact despite winning 35, 31 and 27 touches respectively – all three failed to hit the scoreboard.
In contrast, Hawthorn midfielders Jordan Lewis and Brad Sewell were deemed two of the best against the Pies, winning votes from the coaches in the AFLCA Champion Player of the Year award despite failing to reach 30 disposals.
Lewis picked up 27 and had six clearances, while Sewell gathered 26 and kicked a goal.
Bruce says it will take a similar effort on Saturday at Aurora Stadium for the Hawks to get the better of the midfield battle.
“That’s similar to what we did against Collingwood – we knew their midfield talent was going to allow them to win a lot of the footy, we just had to try and reduce their impact,” Bruce said.
“It’s impossible to keep Gary quiet but he also has a couple of teammates who are very dangerous players and who are winning lots of the ball.”
“On the flip side, when we get the opportunity to impact, we need to make the most of that as well.”
The Hawks could send midfielder Liam Shiels to Ablett, given he has performed negating roles on the game’s best midfielders and has past experience on the gun Sun.
