The form – Hawthorn

Coming off a 145-point demolition of St Kilda, the Hawks couldn’t be better placed in terms of confidence and form ahead of the clash with the Swans but that win came at a cost.

With Sam Mitchell and Brian Lake both injured on Saturday, the Hawks will now need to call on others to fill those key roles in the midfield and defence.

The good news is one of those players, Ryan Schoenmakers made a successful return to footy in the win over the Saints and played forward and back, so he’s a ready made replacement at full back for Lake if Clarkson wants to go that way.

Meanwhile, Luke Hodge is in good form heading into Friday night after being named in the best players the last two weeks, while Cyril Rioli and Luke Breust are in vintage form up forward.
 

The form – Sydney

After an inauspicious start to the season, the Swans have hit their straps, winning their last three games in a row.

Their win over Fremantle in Round 5 was the most impressive but a hard-fought triumph over Melbourne can’t be ignored given their upset win over Adelaide last weekend.

With Sam Reid and Adam Goodes back in the side after injury layoffs and Kurt Tippett and Lance Franklin ready to resume, the Swans are in great shape heading into Friday night’s blockbuster.
 

Recent history

Both Hawthorn and Sydney have been two of the best performed clubs in the last three years – each having won a premiership - but interestingly, Hawthorn has actually won four of their past five meetings between the two sides.

The Hawks won all three games against the Swans last season (in Round 7, 23 and the Qualifying Final) by an average of 18 points. Three of those four wins though, were decided by 12 points or less with the anomaly coming in last year’s Qualifying Final when the Hawks beat the Swans by 54 points.

Sydney hasn’t beaten Hawthorn since the 2012 Grand Final and won only three of their past 10 games against the Hawks.

Sydney’s ruck issue

He might not have grown up with AFL football and despite being a premiership player many still don’t see the value of ruckman/forward Mike Pyke to Sydney but his unavailability for Friday night is a huge blow to the Swans.

After Shane Mumford, one of the best ruckmen in the league, departed for GWS at the end of last year, Pyke assumed the number one ruck mantle simply because the Swans didn’t have anyone else.

He has performed admirably this year but the fact is, Sydney are nowhere near as a good a stoppage team as they were when Mumford was their ruckman and that’s part of the reason for their slow start to 2014.

In their opening seven matches, the Swans are ranked 12^th in the competition for clearances with an average of 37.7 per game with Pyke and Tom Derickx as their ruckman.

From 2010-2013, when Mumford played at Sydney, the Swans were never ranked lower than third for clearances in a season – they were ranked third in 2010, first in 2011, third in 2012 and first in 2013.

With Pyke out with a hamstring injury, Derickx will need to step up and be the number one ruckman but he is ranked 18^th at the Swans for time spent on ground – third last at Sydney of the players who haven’t been the sub.

He spends 79.9 per cent of time on the ground, but that is much less than those who are number one ruckmen at their clubs like Todd Goldstein at North Melbourne who spends 91.7 per cent of game time on the ground.

Does he have the tank?

So what happens in the midfield?

Derickx will battle Hawthorn’s duo of Ben McEvoy and David Hale, two players in good form heading into the game.

The Swans are ranked 15^th in the league for hit outs and the Hawks 6^th with an average of 42.6 per game. The Hawks are also ranked third for clearances, with an average of 42.1 per game.

That means, if McEvoy and Hale are able to give their midfielders like Jordan Lewis first use, the Hawks could have the edge at the stoppages.

Lewis is Hawthorn’s most dangerous stoppage player this year, ranked number one at the club in that area with an average of 4.9 per game. Shaun Burgoyne is close behind and is in vintage form to start the year, with an average of 4.6 per game. Luke Hodge has also been dangerous around stoppages this season, average 3.7 per game.

For Sydney, Josh Kennedy is their best, averaging 5.9 per game, while Luke Parker and Dan Hannebery are ranked equal second with 4.7 per game.

Interestingly, Pyke comes in at number four with 3.4 per game – so his omission is a blow there, too.

Hawthorn’s forward line compared to Sydney’s

It’s rare in the current AFL climate that you see a team win by 145-points and have four players kick four goals each for the game like Hawthorn had with Jack Gunston, Jarryd Roughead, Luke Breust and Ryan Schoenmakers last week.

Hawthorn is easily the highest scoring team in the competition this season, averaging 127.7 points per game but the Swans have been down on their defensive capabilities so far despite holding Melbourne and Brisbane to a combined 82 points over the last two weeks. The fact is, Hawthorn’s forwards are much more dangerous than those at the Demons and Lions.

The Hawks have three players in the top seven leaders of the Coleman Medal and Cyril Rioli is lurking just behind with 13 goals for the season and then there’s David Hale and Paul Puopolo who have each kicked eight goals.

The Swans, meanwhile have averaged just 86 points per game in the opening seven weeks, although they haven’t had their full complement of forwards available until now.

Kurt Tippett hasn’t played yet this season and last year was the overwhelming dominant forward at Sydney by kicking 35 goals and taking the most marks inside 50 of any Swan last year with three per game and was ranked third in the AFL.

So far this year, it has been Lance Franklin, Ben McGlynn and Kieren Jack who have taken the most marks inside 50, with eight each. Franklin and Luke Parker have kicked the most goals, with 12 and eight respectively.