Hawthorn extended their perfect start to the AFL season, but were nearly punished for bad finishing before beating Richmond by 12 points at the MCG last night.

The Hawks were badly off their best form, highlighted by wastefulness in front of goal, yet won their sixth game on the trot, 14.22 (106) to 15.4 (94) before a crowd of 46,076.

The Hawks were out-played by a Matthew Richardson-inspired Richmond for much of the second half, and lost the lead late in the third quarter, but finished the stronger to win, despite booting one less goal than the Tigers.

Jarryd Roughead booted five goals (three behinds) and set up a crucial goal in the third quarter to cover for the misfiring Lance Franklin, who finished with 1.7 after five great games to start the season.

Hawthorn’s kicking for goal was askew from the moment Roughead missed from 15 metres out on the run early in the game, but Richmond’s tactic of clogging up the Hawks’ forward line in the second quarter forced them into taking shots from the pockets.

Their bad finishing meant the game was still alive well into the final quarter, until Roughead goaled at the 25-minute mark.

Luke Hodge starred in the midfield for the Hawks, and Michael Osborne, Rick Ladson, Sam Mitchell and Shane Crawford were busy throughout, while Cyril Rioli provided a constant spark in the forward line and booted two goals.

Ironically in a performance notorious for its bad finishing, Rioli kicked what could be the goal of the year, when he burst past three Tigers in the third quarter and rolled through a dribbler from the boundary line.

Richardson booted four goals for the Tigers in a superb performance notable for his hard work across the ground.

The veteran Tiger began on a wing, spent much of the first half in defence filling the space Franklin would normally lead into, and then went forward in the second half.

He brought the Tigers to within two points in the opening seconds of the final quarter when he kicked off the ground, and then closed the gap to five points 11 minutes later when he converted a free kick.

But the Hawks booted four goals in the last quarter, and Roughead found his range to boot two from strong marks, to seal the win.

Jay Schulz gave Richmond the lead during the third-quarter comeback, but the Hawks booted the last two goals before three-quarter time, one of them to Ben McGlynn from a clever Roughead tap, which gave Hawthorn some breathing space.

Richardson (27 disposals, 12 marks) was the Tigers’ best, while Nathan Brown (three goals) was lively, and Kane Johnson, Nathan Foley, Shane Tuck, Jordan McMahon, Jake King and Brett Deledio found plenty of the ball.

But the Tigers often over-did it when in possession, and were punished several times through bad skill errors or turnovers caused by one too many handballs.

Franklin booted the Hawks’ opening goal to take the lead on the league goal kicking, but missed seven shots from then on in a performance similar to his effort late last year, when he booted 2.11 against the Western Bulldogs.

He came off the ground late in the last quarter with a sore shoulder, although the injury did not look serious.

© AAP 2012

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