GRANT Birchall believes Hawthorn’s Round 9 loss to Richmond was the push it needed to build consistency in the second half of the season.
As the Hawks prepare for a grand final showdown with Sydney, the rangy defender reflected on what was a shock 62-point loss at the hands of the Tigers.
From that point on, the Hawks went on a rampage, dealing out heavy losses to all opponents for the next nine rounds (including the bye).
In that time, the average winning margin for Hawthorn was an incredible 81 points - the winning stretch included victories against North Melbourne (by 115 points), Carlton 50 points), Greater Western Sydney (162 points), Collingwood (47 points) and Essendon (94 points).
Even more impressive was the unmerciful attack of the team, kicking an average of 146 points per game, while conceding just 64 points to the opposition.
Birchall says the highlight of the Hawks’ season has been its consistency over four quarters since falling to the Tigers in Round 9.
“After our Richmond loss early on in the season, the consistency of our effort across four quarters has been a lot better,” he said at the Ricoh Centre on Sunday.
“We work very hard as a team and pride ourselves on our contested footy and getting it forward.
“Consistency over four quarters, particularly after the Richmond loss has been a real highlight for us.”
The defender admits the Hawks were “sloppy” in its preliminary final win over Adelaide.
The Hawks dominated the inside 50s, 64-38 but were unable to make the most of its opportunities going forward.
When the Hawks did manage to win a shot on goal, it squandered those chances to forge further ahead, ending the match with an inaccurate scorecard of 13.19.
Birchall says the Hawks will need to be better against the Swans in the grand final on Saturday.
“We were a bit sloppy, no doubt,” he said.
“We wasted a fair bit of opportunity, particularly early in the game with our conversion and our inside 50 entries were pretty average as well.
“We’ll work on that during the week and try and clean that up.”
The 24-year-old admitted though, that the intensity of finals football is a contributing factor to the skill errors and inaccurate kicking we’ve seen in the eight finals played so far.
“The intensity and the pressure in finals really steps up,” he said.
“It’s hard to pull the trigger on the kicks and maintain the footy to take control of the game.
“(But) that’s finals footy and Adelaide’s pressure was fantastic last night.”
Kate Salemme is a member of Hawthorn Football Club's Digital Media team reporting exclusively for hawthornfc.com.au from the Ricoh Centre.
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