TALL forwards Lance Franklin and Tim Boyle, onballer SamMitchell and running player Xavier Ellis return for Hawthorn’s traditional grudgematch against Essendon at the MCG on Sunday.
Searching for some much-needed momentum after losing theirpast two matches, the Hawks need to win the round 18 match to stay in the topeight.
Franklin,a late withdrawal from last week’s match with a virus, had a day out in theclubs’ last meeting in round six, booting nine goals.
He will slip nicely in the forward six, and will be gratefulto stand next to the Hawks’ most improved player in 2007, Boyle.
Boyle strained his hamstring in the exciting round 13victory against Collingwood at Telstra Dome.
At 194cm, Boyle is two centimetres shorter than Franklin, and a centimetretaller than the Hawks’ other young marksman, Jarryd Roughead.
The trio form an imposing combination in the forward 50, andtrouble opposition teams with their height and athleticism.
The Hawks have managed just the one victory since Boyle hasbeen out of the team.
The other significant inclusion is clearance guru Mitchell.He was kicked in the calf in the match against St Kilda and was unable to overthe ailment before the Kangas game.
Tom Murphy has been omitted from the squad, while Boyle, BenDixon, Beau Dowler, Xavier Ellis, Ben McGlynn, Travis Tuck and Clinton Younghave been selected on the extended interchange bench.
The Hawks are on 10 wins and in fifth position on the AFLladder, while the Bombers are three spots adrift with nine wins.
Goals were a rare commodity in the team’s Aurora outing against the Kangaroos last week. Four goals in three quarters offooty will not be good enough against the Bombers which are on an emotionalwave following the sacking of coach Kevin Sheedy.
Coach Alastair Clarkson said on Melbourne radio on Thursday that there wereno excuses for last week’s disappointing display, and said the team must bounceback if it is to experience September action.
“We’ve been delighted with our progress thus far. We’ve hada couple of hiccups in the last two weeks,” Clarkson told sports radio station SEN.
“We’ve played two very good sides who are in very good formin St Kilda and the Kangaroos andthey’ve both played well in those games.”
“We didn’t play well and hopefully we can bounce backstrongly against the Bombers.”
The Hawks have got a challenging run home with Essendon, ineighth position; inform Brisbane at the MCG; the Western Bulldogs at TelstraDome and the Swans at the SCG.
“They are five tough games and we are going to need to playwell to get ourselves the opportunity [of playing finals],” Clarkson said.
“We’re very much in control of our win-loss ratio. We don’thave to rely on other sides to lose … if we play good enough footy in the finalfive weeks of the season, we give ourselves the chance to play finals football.And that would be a great experience for our playing group and where they areat, at the minute.”
THE TEAM:
B: Brent Guerra, Stephen Gilham, Campbell Brown
HB: Grant Birchall, Trent Croad, Rick Ladson
C: Jordan Lewis, Sam Mitchell, Joel Smith
HF: Chance Bateman, Lance Franklin, Shane Crawford
F: Richard Vandenberg, Simon Taylor, Jarryd Roughead
FOLL: Robert Campbell, Luke Hodge, Brad Sewell
I/C (from): Tim Boyle, Ben Dixon, Beau Dowler, XavierEllis, Ben McGlynn, Travis Tuck, ClintonYoung
In: Boyle,Ellis, Franklin, Mitchell
Out: Murphy (omitted)
The views in this story are those of the author and notnecessarily those of the club.
