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In my preview for last night’s qualifying final between West Coast and Hawthorn, I called it the most important game of the season. After watching the game, I’m even more convinced about that.
MORE AFL FINALS:
>> DOCKERS VS SWANS PREVIEW
>> DOGS VS CROWS PREVIEW
>> TIGERS VS ROOS PREVIEW
>> EXPERT TIPS
>> THE BROWNLOW MEDAL CONTENDERS
>> WHO WILL WIN THE BEST & FAIRESTS?
As someone who tipped West Coast – admittedly, as a bit of a ‘gut feel’ – I wasn’t shocked, necessarily, to see the Eagles win. Rather, what was shocking about last night’s game was the manner in which they won.
Hawthorn are the best team in the AFL. Or, at least, they were before 6:20pm last night. They’d won their last six finals and the last two flags.
The Eagles made them look like an absolute basket case.
From the moment the ball bounced you could sense the Eagles were on. The Hawks, on the other hand, just didn’t seem to have their minds fully focused on the task at hand.
From early in the game we worryingly saw that trend that has popped up on and off in Hawks games all year, that sense they are trying to be a bit too ‘cute’ on the field. Trying to play special footy, instead of smart footy.
The Eagles were quick to jump on this and gave the Hawks, themselves renowned for their pressure, a real lesson in physicality. They harassed them at the ball at every opportunity. In the words of many a sports fan, they wanted it more.
The result? A 32-point win that could easily have been a much larger margin if the Eagles hadn’t taken their foot off the pedal in the last quarter. They led by 50 at the last change.
We haven’t seen Hawthorn get dismantled like that in a big game since… well, I can hardly remember seeing it happen.
Now the Hawks need to win a semi-final next week, over the Bulldogs or the Crows, before travelling interstate, either back to Perth or up to Sydney, and win a prelim there just to get themselves to the Grand Final.
It’s a very big ask, and it seems to put the dream of a third consecutive premiership almost beyond their reach. After being the unanimous favourites to win the flag among betting companies during the week, they’ve now dropped to third behind West Coast and Fremantle.
In fact, a derby grand final between the two West Australian sides now seems the most likely result. And won’t that be something to behold?
It’s been a glorious, glorious era for the Hawks. They snatched a flag against the odds in 2008, they copped bitter disappointment in 2011 and 2012, then they matured and came good on years of development with back to back wins in 2013 and 2014.
But is it now at an end?
Well, we all know it’s too soon to say so with any certainty. This loss could be just the kick in the pants they need to get their heads together and there’s no doubt in my mind that if they get everything ticking over smoothly they’re still a massive chance in the premiership race.
But if this loss does prove to be the end of Hawthorn’s premiership ambitions for 2015 – or the precursor to it at least – you have to wonder if they will be able to step back up in 2016, or if they will start a gradual decline.
A number of their most important players are nearing the ends of their careers. Premiership captains Sam Mitchell and Luke Hodge will only be around so much longer, Josh Gibson and Shaun Burgoyne are no spring chickens either, and Brian Lake might be playing his last month of AFL football.
Of course, the Hawks have plenty of proven talent in the mid-age range that will continue to make them a competitive side for years to come, and the likes of Will Langford, Jed Anderson and Jonathan O’Rourke are all exciting prospects going forward.
Still, you get the feeling the Hawks might be about to settle into the sort of position that Sydney occupied for the period between 2005 and 2012, and that Geelong have just fallen out of now – always thereabouts, never quite at the top. Respectable, but not seriously threatening.
Maybe the ride is over. Maybe it’s not. All I can say for Hawks fans is, if this is the end of an era, it was a bloody good one while it lasted.