WHILE Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson says he was rapt with the contribution of first-gamer Beau Muston on Sunday, insiders at the club were not surprised the once injury-plagued youngster performed so well in his first foray into AFL football.

While Hawthorn’s 17.12 (114) to 13.14 (92) win over Melbourne saw the reigning premiers move into positive territory in terms of their win-loss ratio, Muston’s performance was the big talking point of the night.

The 22-year-old wasn’t talking to the media after the match – preferring to enjoy his side’s win with family and teammates – which left his coach to sing his praises.

And there were plenty to be sung after the emerging midfielder – who has undergone three knee reconstructions in his short career – was among the best afield against the Demons.

“We obviously rate him very, very highly at our footy club,” Clarkson said of Muston after the win.

“He had to work really hard to get his opportunity to play at the highest level, and hopefully it’s just blue sky from this point on for him.

“He’s a great character around our footy club, and these setbacks that he’s had along the journey have made him really strong mentally, so hopefully that will mean that going forward he becomes a pretty damaging player for us.”

Muston certainly hurt the Demons on Sunday evening. Whether he was switching the footy across half-back to an open Hawthorn runner, or dashing through the midfield and driving the ball inside 50, he cut an imposing figure.

The former Murray Bushranger ran, marked and kicked his way to 31 disposals in his first outing at the top level – a return that must have had him walking from the MCG at full-time thinking ‘How easy is this?’

“You never expect that [sort of performance] from a debutant, but having said that, he’s 21 or 22 years of age. Despite the fact that he’s had a couple of setbacks with his knee, he’s done a lot of training with our players,” Clarkson said.

“He knows our systems, he knows our players … you’re surprised on one side that a debutant can have such an influential game, but funnily enough I’m not surprised either that he was able to be so influential, because I know he’s done a lot of work.”

Clarkson was pleased his team was able to string some of its best footy together of the season, and with more senior players expected to return to the line-up in coming weeks, things are looking up for his side.

“We were really happy with the way we played in the first half,” he said of the win.

“Going into the game we were just happy to get the points, really, and move on - not that it was ever going to be as flippant as that.

“We got away to a really good start, [but] we just lost a couple of soldiers in the third quarter that meant that we lost a bit of momentum and run.”

The coach said Cameron Stokes suffered tightness in his hamstring and might miss a week, while Garry Moss will be assessed this week after copping a kick to a leg.

The Demons, with more fit players in the final quarter, continued to come at the Hawks.

“In today’s game, if you run as hard as what we did early in the game and then you’ve got to lift the volume of your running players even further in the latter half of the game because you’ve lost a couple of players to rotate, [then] that makes it pretty tough,” Clarkson said.

“Full credit to Melbourne, you know they kept going at it … [but] I’m glad the game didn’t go for five quarters.”

Clarkson said premiership trio Stuart Dew, Xavier Ellis and Clinton Young were part of Box Hill’s impressive win on Saturday and were close to a senior recall.

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