WHILE Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson admitted his side had failed to gel during its ‘scratchy’ 48-point victory over the Brisbane Lions on Saturday, he said he had again been pleased with the flexibility on his playing list and the options at his disposal all over the ground.
As well as using mid-sized backman Kyle Cheney as a stop-gap key defender in the absence of the suspended Brian Lake, Clarkson was able to call on numerous players for a spell on the ball when the Lions began to threaten.
“For the last 12 months or 18 months we’ve been trying to get greater flexibility through that part of the ground,” he said of the midfield battle, adding that Cyril Rioli would be added to the mix when he returns for the Round 2 clash against Essendon.
“We get Rioli back from suspension next week and that will give us more flexibility again with someone who can either play small forward for us, which he’s very good at, but we’ve been playing him a little bit across half back and also the midfield during the NAB Challenge.
“We’ll get him back into the side next week and add a little more flexibility again, but the way the game’s played now you need to have multiple options through various areas of the ground and we’ve tried to do that a fair bit over the summer as well.”
The Hawks were forced to work hard in overcoming a spirited Lions outfit in Launceston, the visitors closing to within two points during the third quarter before the reigning premiers poured on eight final-quarter goals to run out comfortable winners.
“Both sides made plenty of errors which are expected in Round 1 of the season,” he said.
“It was really just who was going to finish their work better and we managed to do that.”
One area where Clarkson’s side clearly outpointed the Lions was in terms of goalkickers, the absence of former star forward Lance Franklin hardly noticed as almost half the side registered a major for the Hawks.
“We like to have a lot of goal kickers and we had 10 so that was pleasing for us,” he said. “We want to share the ball as much as we can but we just didn’t connect as well, we had some open opportunities… where we just couldn’t connect as well as we’d like.
“Maybe I’m being a bit greedy, too, because we still kicked 21 goals and took 22 marks inside fifty.
“Our polish wasn’t quite there in our game overall and hopefully that will get better over the next few weeks as we build ourselves into the season.”
As well as using mid-sized backman Kyle Cheney as a stop-gap key defender in the absence of the suspended Brian Lake, Clarkson was able to call on numerous players for a spell on the ball when the Lions began to threaten.
“For the last 12 months or 18 months we’ve been trying to get greater flexibility through that part of the ground,” he said of the midfield battle, adding that Cyril Rioli would be added to the mix when he returns for the Round 2 clash against Essendon.
“We get Rioli back from suspension next week and that will give us more flexibility again with someone who can either play small forward for us, which he’s very good at, but we’ve been playing him a little bit across half back and also the midfield during the NAB Challenge.
“We’ll get him back into the side next week and add a little more flexibility again, but the way the game’s played now you need to have multiple options through various areas of the ground and we’ve tried to do that a fair bit over the summer as well.”
The Hawks were forced to work hard in overcoming a spirited Lions outfit in Launceston, the visitors closing to within two points during the third quarter before the reigning premiers poured on eight final-quarter goals to run out comfortable winners.
“Both sides made plenty of errors which are expected in Round 1 of the season,” he said.
“It was really just who was going to finish their work better and we managed to do that.”
One area where Clarkson’s side clearly outpointed the Lions was in terms of goalkickers, the absence of former star forward Lance Franklin hardly noticed as almost half the side registered a major for the Hawks.
“We like to have a lot of goal kickers and we had 10 so that was pleasing for us,” he said. “We want to share the ball as much as we can but we just didn’t connect as well, we had some open opportunities… where we just couldn’t connect as well as we’d like.
“Maybe I’m being a bit greedy, too, because we still kicked 21 goals and took 22 marks inside fifty.
“Our polish wasn’t quite there in our game overall and hopefully that will get better over the next few weeks as we build ourselves into the season.”
