HAWTHORN ruckman David Hale says Friday night’s loss to Geelong was a bitter pill to swallow after the Hawks fought back from a 51-point deficit.
Geelong jumped out of the blocks, booting nine first quarter goals to take a 45-point lead into the quarter time break, and booted the opening goal of the second term to open up a 51-point lead.
From there though, the Hawks fought back take an unlikely six-point lead with minutes remaining only to have Tom Hawkins kick a goal on the siren to win the game for the Cats.
The Hawthorn ruckman says losing such a close game to a top eight side was disappointing.
“Coming back from the margin we did in the end, to put our noses in front but to then get rolled in the end was hard to take,” Hale said.
“Friday night was a bit disappointing but we’ll have our review today and go through it I’m sure.”
Part of Coach Alastair Clarkson’s review will no doubt focus on the opening term, where the Hawks were significantly outplayed by the Cats.
Hale says the Hawks will learn from that opening quarter if the Hawks are to meet the Cats again this season.
“We can’t be giving them that sort of start in the future,” he said.
“If we face them again (this year) it will obviously be a big occasion.
“There’s obviously lots of things we can still improve on but I’m sure there’ll be a few positives as well.
“I’m sure there’s a few things we can look at and probably would have done differently if we had our chance again.”
The Hawks take on an embattled Port Adelaide in Tasmania on Sunday under caretaker coach Garry Hocking.
Hale says that despite their troubles, the Hawks won’t be focusing on the Power, but will instead aim to employ their game plan effectively to ensure the Hawks win the four points.
“They’ve had a bit of turmoil so they’ll want to come out and play well,” he said.
“It’s not really about who we play anymore, if we can do our thing and play the way we want to play, then we think we should be able to beat any side.
“Whatever they put at us on the weekend we can only try and counter.”
Spearhead Lance Franklin will again aim to prove his fitness at training this week, with a decision on the Hawthorn full forward expected later in the week.
“He’s been running the last couple of weeks, so I’m sure he’ll put his name up this week,” Hale said.
“The coaching staff and the medical staff will make the decision later in the week.”
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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