HAWKS ruckman Robbie Campbell has admitted that North Melbourne is Hawthorn's “bogey side” after they suffered a 27-point defeat, just their second of the year, to the Kangaroos on Saturday.
While the club had a victory over their fierce rivals in round three this year, it was North who put an end to Hawthorn's finals aspirations last year, and Saturday's defeat at the MCG dropped the Hawks to third on the ladder.
“It was in the newspaper a few weeks ago, the bogey sides for certain teams, and they’re definitely one of ours,” Campbell said.
“They’ve just got a wide spread of consistent players; they don’t have any superstars like 'Buddy' (Franklin) and those sorts of guys, guys that are over the top. They just have a consistent line right across the side. They come out and play hard-at-it footy and take teams by surprise, I reckon.”
Campbell said he is confident that star forward Franklin will come through what has been a relatively quiet few weeks. The 21-year-old West Australian, who is leading the race for the Coleman Medal with 61 goals in 13 rounds, has registered just 2.9 in the last fortnight.
“He’s showing that he’s human. He’s been a bit of a freak for the first half of the season, so he’s obviously going to get a fair bit of attention from other sides. He’s a pretty easy-going kid. He’ll bounce back, I’m sure.”
While Campbell praised North’s tactics in securing victory, he said the young Hawks will learn from the defeat.
“North Melbourne’s tactic of getting numbers behind the footy was pretty evident early," he said.
"I think they took five or six marks in the first quarter from our entries inside 50, so it was going to be tough from the start of the game, but we still tried.
"Our use of the footy wasn’t up to standard - we know that and hopefully we’ll do it better for the rest of the year.
"We’re a maturing side, and it’s great to come up against sides who will try different things against us. It’s only going to make us better. If these losses happen mid-season, it’s not the end of the world. We’ll go and review the game and see what they did against us so if a team tries it against us again, we’ll be better prepared.”
The Hawks were without many of their big names for the MCG clash, with Chance Bateman, Trent Croad and Shane Crawford all watching from the sidelines. While Bateman and Croad are in with a chance of returning for this weekend’s Friday night meeting with West Coast, Campbell said Crawford is almost certain to play.
“He’s very keen to get back playing. I’m almost sure he’s available to play this week, so we’re very excited about that.”
