HAWTHORN has made a mockery of its pre-Grand Final underdog status
to smash the Sydney Swans by 63 points at the MCG on Saturday and claim
its 12th premiership.
After the Swans kicked two of the game's opening three goals,
Hawthorn completely dominated the game, their 21.11 (137) to 11.8 (74)
victory clinching back-to-back flags for just the second time in the
club's history.
It was the Hawks' wise old heads who led the way, with skipper Luke
Hodge, former skipper Sam Mitchell and vice-captain Jordan Lewis
ensuring Hawthorn avenged its 2012 Grand Final loss to the Swans.
Although it was hard to split the three stars, Hodge edged his two
long-term teammates for the Norm Smith Medal for the best player on the
ground. Hodge polled 10 votes to win his second Norm Smith Medal, having also won in 2008, with Lewis and Mitchell each polling nine votes.
The Hawk skipper had 35 possessions and, as usual, did it all for
the Hawks, cutting off Swans attacks at half-back, winning clearances in
the midfield and drifting forward to kick two goals.
Lewis finished with a game-high 37 possessions and Mitchell had 33
as the Hawks' midfield dominated a Swans' on-ball division widely
acknowledged as the best in the competition.
Hawthorn spearhead Jarryd Roughead kicked a game-high five goals to
follow up his bag of six against Port Adelaide last Saturday, and,
perhaps more satisfyingly, claimed bragging rights over good mate and
former Hawk Lance Franklin.
Franklin did his part for his new club with four goals, but was
powerless to stop his former team's weight of dominance around the
ground.
The Hawks' gamble on recalling Cyril Rioli for his first senior
game since suffering a serious hamstring injury in round 15 paid off.
The star forward had just nine possessions, but constantly harassed the
Swans' defenders until he was substituted from the game early in the
final term.
Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson said after the game he had never envisaged his team winning so easily against the Swans.
"We've planned for a long time for this. I know that the game
materialised in a manner that said everything worked perfectly for us
today [but] not in our wildest dreams did we anticipate it was going to
be a 10-goal victory for our side this year," Clarkson said.
"In actual fact, no one saw it coming in terms of that margin, and
many didn't see it coming even in that result because we were the
underdogs."
Nick Malceski, who is widely expected to leave the Swans in the
free agency period that starts on Friday, was one of the Swans' better
performers with 26 possessions.
Josh Kennedy (29 possessions) played a lone hand for the Swans in
the midfield as their on-ball division lowered its colours for one of
the few times this year.
Swans coach John Longmire said he was disappointed his team hadn't given itself a chance of winning.
"We didn't apply the sort of pressure that we hoped to apply early, and we couldn't get it back," Longmire said.
"We didn't play the sort of football we wanted to. We didn't
pressure the opposition when they had the ball, we couldn't get our
hands on it.
"When we got our hands on it, we coughed it up and the opposition got it.
"We missed tackles and we were on the back foot from the first bounce.
"We were not able to wrest the momentum back at any stage. It was such a disappointing effort."
The Swans
headed into Saturday's game as strong favourites after their dominant
preliminary final win over North Melbourne and the Hawks' desperate
three-point win over Port Adelaide.
However, the Hawks saved their 2014 best for last, stunning the
Swans with suffocating pressure that forced the minor premier into a
uncharacteristic slew of errors by hand and foot.
At kick-ins, the unlucky Swan with the ball in his hands often
looked like a deer in the headlights and just as often coughed the ball
straight up to the Hawks.
The Hawks, meanwhile, found time and space to slice the Swans apart
with their unrivalled foot skills. And when they were not doing that,
the likes of Bradley Hill and Liam Shiels were running the Swans ragged
in open space.
In defence, last year's Norm Smith medallist Brian Lake was
outstanding on Swans spearhead Kurt Tippett and Josh Gibson racked up 32
possessions.
The Hawks have now won three premierships since 2008, equalling Geelong's tally over the past decade.
The Cats' 2007, 2009 and 2011 flags looked to have stamped them as
the dominant team of the post-Brisbane Lions premiership era
(2001-2003), but the Hawks (2008, 2012-13) now have a legitimate claim
to sharing that title.
Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson is now equal with John Kennedy snr
and Allan Jeans as the most successful Hawthorn premiership coach, with
the trio each boasting three flags.
Since entering the VFL/AFL competition in 1925, the Hawks had previously won back-to-back flags just once, in 1988-89.
The Swans started Saturday's game well enough and led by six points at the 13-minute mark of the first quarter.
But the Hawks took total control from there, slamming on the final
four goals of the term to go into quarter-time 20 points in front.
The Hawks' dominance was reflected in the first-quarter tackle
count (22-7), inside 50s (19-7) and uncontested possessions (69-48).
The Swans kicked the first goal of the second term through former Hawk Ben McGlynn to cut their deficit to 14 points.
But this proved a false dawn for Swans supporters as the Hawks
piled on the next five goals, with Hodge's goal at the 16-minute mark of
the second term putting Hawthorn up by 47 points.
The Swans then kicked consecutive goals for the first time in the
game, through Adam Goodes and Franklin, to cut the Hawks' lead to 35
points at the 25-minute mark.
But when Roughead goaled less than three minutes later the Swans
went into half-time 42 points down and had to engineer a comeback like
Carlton's in the 1970 Grand Final to win.
But where the Blues were able to come back from 44 points down at
the main break to beat Collingwood in 1970, the Hawks never allowed the
Swans the faintest sniff of victory in the second half.
Grand thrashings: Biggest margins in VFL/AFL Grand Finals
| Margin | Score | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 119 | Geelong 24.19 (163) d Port Adelaide 8.6 (44) | 2007 |
| 96 | Hawthorn 22.20 (152) d Melbourne 6.20 (56) | 1988 |
| 83 | Hawthorn 20.20 (140) d Essendon 8.9 (57) | 1983 |
| 81 | Richmond 23.21 (159) d Collingwood 9.24 (78) | 1980 |
| 80 | West Coast 20.23 (143) d Geelong 8.15 (63) | 1994 |
| 78 | Essendon 26.14 (170) d Hawthorn 14.8 (92) | 1985 |
| 73 | Essendon 18.17 (125) d Carlton 6.16 (52) | 1949 |
| 73 | Melbourne 17.19 (121) d Collingwood 6.12 (48) | 1956 |
| 63 | Essendon 22.18 (150) d Melbourne 13.9 (87) | 1946 |
| 63 | Hawthorn 21.11 (137) d Sydney Swans 11.8 (74) | 2014 |
Will Langford celebrates with his teammates as Josh Kennedy contemplates defeat. Picture: AFL Media
SYDNEY SWANS 2.3 5.3 8.5 11.8 (74)
HAWTHORN 5.5 11.9 16.11 21.11 (137)
GOALS
Sydney Swans: Franklin 4, Goodes 2, Jack 2, Kennedy, McGlynn, Tippett
Hawthorn: Roughead 5, Breust 3, Langford 3, Gunston 2, Hodge 2, Burgoyne 2, Hale, Hill, Puopolo, Suckling
BEST
Sydney Swans: Franklin, Malceski, Kennedy, Shaw, Goodes
Hawthorn: Hodge, Lewis, Mitchell, Roughead, Hill, Lake, Langford, Burgoyne
INJURIES
Sydney Swans: Jetta (concussion)
Hawthorn: Nil
SUBSTITUTES
Sydney Swans: Jake Lloyd replaced by Craig Bird in the third quarter
Hawthorn: Cyril Rioli replaced by Taylor Duryea in the fourth quarter
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Stevic, Nicholls, Meredith
Official crowd: 99,454 at the MCG