The form

Hawthorn
Fresh from the weekend off, the Hawks should be raring to on Saturday after some solid training sessions over the last two weeks to keep their fitness and touch up.

The Hawks were ruthless in their Qualifying Final win over Geelong and with few concerns on the injury front, are in an enviable position heading into the game.

Port Adelaide
They’re the buzz team of the finals series after knocking off Fremantle in Perth and systematically dismantling Richmond in the first week of finals.

All the guns are firing, including Chad Wingard, Ollie Wines and skipper Travis Boak, and their pressure, which their game has been built on this year is back to its best. 

Recent history

The Power got the better of Hawthorn the last time the two teams met but that was their first win over the Hawks in six attempts.

The Hawks won the previous five encounters comfortably from 2011-2013 and by an average of 72 points.

That average is skewed by the 165-point drubbing the Hawks handed the Power in Round 21, 2011, though no Hawthorn winning margin over Port Adelaide in that time is less than 32 points (32. 45, 46, 72 points).

Power pressure

The Hawks will need to be prepared for an onslaught of pressure from Port Adelaide on Saturday given it is the aspect of their game from which their success has stemmed.

While that pressure and hunger to pressure the opposition deserted them in the latter stages of the year, they have re-captured that attack this finals series.

The Power averaged 69.3 tackles per game across the year, with their pressure on the ball carrier and set up behind the ball forcing their opposition into easy turnovers.

A physical team who hit bodies at every opportunity, Port Adelaide players attack their opposition front on, something that proved successful against a young Hawthorn team in Round 10 this year.

While the Hawks out-tackled them 74-62, the Power closed down space, attacked the ball carrier and forced the turnover as the Hawks made some uncharacteristic errors by hand and foot.

That was symptomatic too of the way they beat the Tigers and Freo in their first two finals despite laying just 41 tackles in the Elimination Final and 67 in the Semi Final.

Hawk pressure

The buzz might be around Port Adelaide’s pressure and intensity around the ball but you can’t discount the way the Hawks went about their footy against the Cats in the first final.

The Hawks recorded one of their highest tackle counts for the year with 81, well up on their season average of 62 (ranked 17^th in the league).

Assistant Coach Brendon Bolton says that has been an area the Hawks have been steadily working on throughout the year, and it clicked in the Qualifying Final.

“We’ve tried to improve little aspects of our whole defensive action, not just tackling,” he told hawthornfc.com.au

“It was really pleasing that in a big game, our tackle numbers were positive – we had a really balanced game in applying pressure and using the ball well.”

But the Hawks are one of the best at pressuring the ball carrier and forcing the turnover, with Paul Puopolo and Luke Breust causing headaches up forward alongside Jarryd Roughead and Jack Gunston who love applying pressure just as much as kicking a goal.

If they can’t get the turnover on the first attempt, the Hawks will lock the footy in their forward half through repeat stoppages and ramp up the pressure on the opposition’s defence that way.

Port Adelaide’s biggest strength

Undoubtedly the biggest strength of Ken Hinkley’s team is their transition game – turning defence into attack.

Starting with the shut down roles of Alipate Carlile and Jackson Trengove down back, the ability of Matthew Broadbent, Jasper Pittard and Jared Polec (ranked top three for rebound 50s) to sweep the ball away with speed is arguably the best in the league.

That trio are also ranked top 10 for average disposals per game, so shutting down their run from half back is just as critical as shutting down skipper Travis Boak.

The hard-running Boak inflicts most of the damage forward of centre, receiving the clearing kick from the dynamic trio off half-back.

Boak leads the Power for forward 50 entries, averaging 4.8 per game, while he’s also ranked first for average disposals (26.6).

His running power through the midfield is exceptional but not as good if the run from half-back is limited from his teammates.

The same goes for Brad Ebert, who’s ranked second for forward 50 entries, while Polec is dangerous both forward and back, also ranked third for inside 50s.

The biggest concern for Hawthorn is that run off half-back because the Power spread almost better than anyone and if they get that speed on the outside, it spells trouble for the Hawks.

Can they stop the Hawk forwards?

Generating that run off half-back depends on the ability of the back six to stop Hawthorn’s dynamic and ultra-dangerous forward line.

As the highest scoring team in the competition across the season (111.7 points per game average), the Hawks are the only side to have had three players in the top 10 for the Coleman Medal.

Jarryd Roughead didn’t play in the Round 10 clash between the two sides but he will be there on Saturday at the MCG, so that already causes an issue for the Power.

Carlile will likely get the match-up, while Trengove could stand Gunston or on the David Hale-type, with Tom Jonas to get the Gunston match-up.

But then there’s Luke Breust (54 goals) and Paul Puopolo (21) at their feet, both of which demand respect from their opponents. Unluckily for Port, their opponents will be their most damaging half-backs, Pittard and Broadbent or even Cam O’Shea.

The fact those two players will need to respect their opponents because they’re so dangerous already limits their run off half-back because they can’t get into position early to back in their defenders against the gun Hawk forwards.

Factor in too the fact wingman Isaac Smith has played forward at times this year and is actually ranked fourth at the Hawks for goals kicked this year with 22.

Are the Power really the second half specialists?

For the last two years the buzz has been around Port Adelaide’s fitness and their ability to run over teams in the second half, particularly the last quarter but the stats show the Hawks are just as good in second halves this season.

Hawthorn’s best quarter this year has been the third, having won 17 of 23 so far, while the Power have won 16 of 23 but have played one more game than the Hawks.

The Hawks have kicked an average of 31.5 points in third quarters this year, while the Power have kicked 25.4 on average.

Interestingly though, the Power have won just two more last quarters this year than the Hawks with 17 to Hawthorn’s 15 but again, they’ve played one more game this year because the Hawks advanced straight to the Preliminary Final.

The Hawks have kicked an average of 27.9 points in last quarters this year, while the Power have kicked an average of 28.1.

The difference comes in points conceded to their opposition though, where the Power have restricted their opposition to less scores in the second half than Hawthorn has.

The Power concede on average just 37.4 points to their opposition in second halves, while the Hawks average 42.5 points to the opposition.

In the midfield

Look out for some big match-ups in the middle of the ground as the gun of Hawthorn in Jordan Lewis, Sam Mitchell, Luke Hodge, Shaun Burgoyne and the underrated Will Langford and Liam Shiels go head-to-head with Boak, Wines, Ebert, Hamish Hartlett and Robbie Gray.

The Hawks are the number one clearance team in the competition, with Lewis the number one man with an average of 5.6 clearances per game.

Mitchell has been exceptional since returning from injury, averaging 5.1 per game to be ranked second followed by Langford (4.4), Hodge (3.6) and Shiels (3.5).

The Power are come in at a close second, with Gray surprisingly their most damaging with an average of 5.7 clearances per game. Boak is ranked second (5.4), Wines third (4.7), Ebert fourth (3.5) and Hamish Hartlett fifth (3.1).

Then there’s the defensive options, who gets the lock down job on who? For the Power they’ll send Kane Cornes to either Mitchell or Lewis and for the Hawks, Langford or Shiels to Boak, most likely given he was best on ground in the Round 10 clash with 34 disposals and 10 clearances.