Port Adelaide 3.3 4.7 5.7 9.8 (62)
Hawthorn 7.4 9.8 10.10 16.12 (108)
Goals: Port Adelaide - Schulz 3, Stewart 2, Wingard, Hitchcock, Wingard, Moore
Hawthorn - Franklin 4, Breust 3, Gunston, Roughead, Hill 2, Hale, Puopolo, Shiels
Best: Port Adelaide - Broadbent, Moore, Ebert, Stewart, Schulz, Pfeiffer
Hawthorn - Sewell, Mitchell, Roughead, Franklin, Whitecross, Breust
Crowd: 26, 638 at AAMI Stadium
The Hawks travelled to Adelaide to take on the Power just nine weeks ago with confidence after a 115-point win over North Melbourne.
The Hawks started the match as they’d ended the Kangaroos’ one, with precision, will and skill. The Hawks snuffed out any hope of an upset with a dominant first quarter - booting seven goals to three in a blistering opening term.
A domination in the clearances (15-8), meant that the Hawks were giving their forwards a myriad of opportunities to score in the opening term and, the Hawthorn forwards capitalised, earning 11 scoring shots to six.
The Hawks also dominated the possession count, not allowing the Power to get their hands on the footy. Port Adelaide had just 62 disposals in the opening quarter compared to Hawthorn’s 100 at 72 per cent efficiency. The Hawks had the game played on their terms.
The second and third quarters were disappointing from a Hawthorn perspective, with the Power winning the clearances (38-30) and restricting Hawthorn’s ability to score.
Normal transmission resumed in the final term, however, with the Hawks pulling away to boot six last quarter goals to charge to a 46-point win.
Brad Sewell was easily best afield for his tagging job on Power young gun Hamish Hartlett, restricting him to just 12 disposals. Sewell, however, gathered 33 disposals himself, had eight clearances and eight inside 50s to be one of the Hawks’ most damaging attacking players.
Grant Birchall too was an important player, providing great run off half back, while the defensive group as a whole held up well over the course of the match - particularly when the Power was on top in the middle.
For the Power, midfielder Matthew Broadbent was arguably their best, winning 25 dispoals and had five clearances. Kane Cornes was also prominent in the middle with 29 disposals and five clearances. Jay Schulz and Paul Stewart were the most dangerous Power forwards, booting three and two goals respectively.
What the coaches said:
Hawthorn’s Alastair Clarkson: “Port have been in pretty good nick, they’ve won their last three games and were up and about, so to get away to a good start and to get some early momentum was really important for the final result.”
Port Adelaide’s Matthew Primus: “They just outclassed us.
“We weren't clean with the ball by hand or foot … [the loss] shows you the level you've got to get to and what we aspire to get to.
"We will learn some great lessons from a very, very good team."
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Check out this week's match preview, Looking ahead to Port Adelaide.
