Hawthorn 2.0 5.4 6.8 10.12 (72)
West Coast 3.4 4.9 6.10 9.11 (65)

Best: Hawthorn: Franklin, Mitchell, Birchall, Rioli, Suckling, Gilham, Young.
West Coast: Priddis, Cox, Darling, Butler, Kennedy, Rosa, Glass.

Looking ahead

Some AFL experts tipped the Eagles to be the ones to have a down season in 2012, after a dramatic improvement in 2011, where they went from wooden spooners to preliminary finalists. The Eagles have shown so far, though that they are the “real deal”.

With Patersons Stadium being one of the biggest grounds in the AFL, speed, endurance and the ability to spread from contested situations is important. The Hawks displayed their talent in this area last week against the Crows, with their ability to rebound off half back through Josh Gibson, Matt Suckling and Brent Guerra in particular - that effort will need to be backed up on Saturday night.

Adding to that importance, is the Eagles’ much publicised press which will no doubt be in full swing, so footskills and the ability to keep a cool head in congestion to find a teammate will be pivotal to both teams’ ability to generate run and carry.

Matt Priddis has a phenomenal record against the Hawks, and shutting him down, particularly at the stoppages will go a long way to the Hawks ensuring they can get the ball going forward. Priddis’ best ever disposal return was against the Hawks in 2008, when he recorded a massive 45 possessions. On that same day, he recorded a career-best 30 handballs, illustrating his ability to dish the footy out to the Eagles’ damaging runners Daniel Kerr, Shannon Hurn, Matt Rosa and Luke Shuey.

Josh Kennedy is the other match-winner for the Eagles, who has booted 10 goals in three matches so far in 2012. Kennedy is athletic, has good speed and an incredible ability to mark the ball at pace. He is also strong in one-on-one contests. The Eagles midfielders often deliver Kennedy the footy on his chest, so the Hawks midfielders need to make sure they’re pressuring the ball coming into the forward line.

Boasting arguably the best ruck combination in the league, Dean Cox and Nic Naitanui ensure that the Eagles midfielders have first use of the football. It is not only their ability at the ruck contests, however, that make the Eagles duo such an important cog in the West Coast machine. Cox is well-known for his ability to act as another midfielder, racking up disposal after disposal, while drifting forward and hurting the opposition on the scoreboard.

Naitanui though, is another entity on his own. The freakish talent has the speed of Usain Bolt and the height of an NBA power forward, and when you combine those attributes with AFL football, it’s an undeniable threat to any opposition. His ability to burst from a centre bounce and hit the scoreboard, as we’ve seen on a number of occasions is something that the Hawks rucks and midfielders need to counter.

In the midfield, Sam Mitchell, Jordan Lewis, Brad Sewell and Liam Shiels will need to be on their toes and in the right position at every stoppage to ensure the Eagles’ hit outs aren’t to advantage. In the Hawks’ favour, is the tenacity, drive and belief of the midfield group, and of the competitiveness of ruckmen Jarryd Roughead, David Hale and Broc McCauley.



Adam Simpson: "They’re very good at keeping the ball inside their forward line and it’s not just the fact that they’re so tall and can take a mark, their ability to keep the ball in their forward line is really good as well."



Jarryd Roughead: “To get a run around on the bigger ground four weeks ago is what you want, especially when you know you’ve got to come over four weeks later and it couldn’t be better preparation for us - (we’ve) taken a bit of confidence from that and hopefully we can build on it this week.”



John Bournaris on Facebook: "Contested possessions will be important to release outside players like Isaac Smith of Hawthorn and Andrew Gaff of West Coast, to quickly enter an open forward line in order to have the chance of kicking a winning score. All in all it will be a mouth watering match between two teams likely to feature deep into September."