Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell says his side had “no answers” for Geelong during the reigning premiers’ stunning second-half blitz that gave the Hawks a significant reality check.
And Power premiership midfielder Kane Cornes said the Hawks might’ve had some answers if they hadn’t made so many bold list calls during the recent off-season.
Hawthorn on Easter Monday led Geelong by nine points at half-time before conceding 12 consecutive goals to go down in a humiliating 82-point loss.
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Chris Scott’s men slammed on 10.5 to 0.0 in the third term. The 65-point quarter was not only the biggest by any team so far this season, but also the equal-12th biggest third quarter win in VFL-AFL history.
The third term numbers were astounding: +57 disposals, +16 marks, +23 contested possessions and +10 clearances, all in Geelong‘s favour. The Cats had 22 inside 50s to helpless Hawthorn‘s 1 in the third term alone – and they scored from 15 of those 22 entries.
“We were a bit shell-shocked really. I mean, gee, they were sharp,” Mitchell told reporters post-game.
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“We went from in the first half where I thought we were clean, the tackling was good and pressure around the ball was really good and really troubled them, and then in the third quarter they just blew us away really.
“I think we’d been waiting for Geelong to do that for the first three and a half games, and it came in that third quarter and we just had no answers for them, as harsh as that sounds for us.”
Mitchell said there were “very limited things” the Hawks could do in the coaches’ box in the third quarter as the Cats’ midfield dominance, plus the “real basic” errors made by Mitchell’s side, meant it was tough for Hawthorn to apply any scoreboard pressure.
The Cats avalanche prompted Mitchell to turn to injured forward Mitch Lewis, who was in the coaches’ box, and ask how the coach could help the players rally as Geelong piled on 10.5 for the term.
“I said to Mitch Lewis with five minutes to go (in the third term) and asked is there anything we could do to help the players at this point,” Mitchell said.
“I went to the bench in the last quarter just to talk them through it. I think Luke Breust down there, he‘d been here before and had this understanding of what was required and doing the basics well.
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“The amount of mistakes we made – just real basics like dropped marks or missed kicks – those things that we didn‘t do in the first half and then when we did them in the second, we dropped our heads and lost our way. We’ll get better at those things, but it was a hard watch in the second half.”
Mitchell later on Fox Footy’s AFL 360 dubbed it a “tough hour of footy”.
The Hawks were one of the most active clubs during the 2022 exchange period, acquiring Karl Amon (Port Adelaide, free agency), Cooper Stephens (Geelong, trade), Lloyd Meek (Fremantle, trade) and four young players at the national draft. But they also traded away Jack Gunston (Brisbane), Tom Mitchell (Collingwood) and Jaeger O’Meara (Hawthorn) to rival clubs, while premiership stars Ben McEvoy and Liam Shiels retired.
Asked if times like the third quarter on Monday were made harder due to a lack of senior players, Mitchell said: “I think every side is challenged. I watched a lot of games over the weekend and there was a lot of five, six, seven-goal run-ons. We‘ve been giving up our fair share of those.
“Luke Breust was really trying to bring everyone together and obviously James Sicily had his hands pretty full, so it was probably difficult for him. But I think our players didn‘t know a way out of that today and that’s going to continue to be an area that we need to improve over the journey.
But speaking on Channel 9’s Footy Classified, Cornes said the senior player chasm didn’t help.
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“It is a bit concerning when you are looking to Mitch Lewis in the coaches’ box asking: ‘What can we do?’ Every record was almost broken from a Hawthorn perspective during that third quarter,” Cornes said.
“The decision to trade away those players was always going to be a talking point and when results happen like this and Sam says post-game ‘we didn‘t know what to do’ and asking a young player ‘what we can do’, it does raise your eyebrows.
“Of course (they’re young), but that doesn’t happen if Mitchell and O’Meara (are there). They don’t win the game, but that leadership (helps).
“It’s a discussion that’s ongoing. I have some sympathy for Sam with the situation that his list was left in from Alastair Clarkson and his non-belief in the draft, but that’s the result you’re going to get at times this year.”
Mitchell said Tyler Brockman was subbed out for Chad Wingard after the main break due to a lack of his “normal vibrancy”.
“He hadn’t hit the scoreboard and we thought Chad might be able to play a little bit higher obviously,” he said.
The Hawks coach said he had not seen the replay of Lloyd Meek’s knee to the ribs of Mark Blicavs during a first quarter ruck contest, but added the Hawks had other ruck woes on their minds after Rhys Stanley had 26 hit-outs.
“David Hale, the ruck coach, (Meek) would be talking to him. Certainly in the third quarter we started to lose a lot of hit-outs, so I’m not sure if technique was talked about at that point, but I didn’t see the incident,” he said.
— with NCA NewsWire
