ASSISTANT Coach Adam Simpson has backed defender Ryan Schoenmakers to nullify one of Adelaide’s power forwards, be it Kurt Tippett or Taylor Walker in Saturday’s preliminary final.
Schoenmakers, 21, has endured tough battles with a number of the competition’s best forwards, including Collingwood’s Travis Cloke, West Coast’s Josh Kennedy and Sydney’s Sam Reid in Hawthorn’s past three matches.
His performances against three of the competition’s best, and his good form over the course of the season has given the Hawthorn coaching staff the confidence to continue to throw it’s unfashionable defender the big jobs each week.
The jobs would be none bigger than taking on Adelaide’s Walker in Saturday’s preliminary final, fresh off a five-goal haul that arguably carried the Crows to a semi-final victory over Fremantle.
Simpson says that ‘Schoey’ has what it takes.
“He’s in good form, he’s had a good year,” he said at the Ricoh Centre on Tuesday.
“We’ve got all the confidence in the world to back him in to do any job that’s asked and he quite often does.”
Simpson conceded though, that the 21-year-old is no guarantee to be handed the job on Walker, with fellow defender Josh Gibson also in contention to take on the in-form Crow.
That equation is complicated by Walker’s forward partner, Tippett, who too looms as a danger for the Hawks.
But Simpson has full confidence in the Hawks’ defensive pair.
“He’s such a competitive beast and he loves playing on the big dogs,” Simpson said of Gibson.
“(But) we haven’t spoken about the specific match-up.
“Our back six are going to play a very important role because it’s not just about Walker and Tippett, there’s other players there as well.”
The Hawks last faced the Crows in Round 3 of this season, a match in which Hawthorn defeated Adelaide by 56 points at the MCG.
Despite the margin, the Hawks were easily beaten in the clearances (31-38) and contested possession (128-149).
The Hawks assistant says those two areas are the Crows’ biggest strengths.
“It is a long time ago, Round 3 but they’ll take confidence from that for sure,” he said.
“The thing about Adelaide is they’re very consistent with it, and quite often they’re winning that battle every week.
“They’re number one for clearances and number one for contested ball - they’re the indicators we look at for finals footy.
“They stand up pretty well, so it’ll be a bit of a battle there.”
Simpson also dismissed the notion a victory over the Crows is a formality.
“One thing is for certain, you don’t make a prelim by luck,” he said.
“There’s no guarantees in footy.”
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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