Hawthorn have overcome errant kicking and a sluggish start to beat Gold Coast by 53 points in their AFL clash in Launceston.
The Hawks trailed by nine points at quarter-time but did enough to beat the fading Suns 13.18 (96) to 5.13 (43) on Saturday in front of 9007 fans.
Hawthorn’s third-straight victory keeps them in the top-eight mix, while the battling Suns have lost eight in a row.
“We got jumped a little bit at the start,” Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson admitted.
“It was a tough game of footy. At no stage was there any real flow in the game, except perhaps late when we got two or three goals that made it look like it was a big margin.”
Both teams sprayed countless set shots throughout the afternoon, including several from in front.
Jack Gunston kicked three goals after copping a hit below the belt during warm-up and a calf cork early on, while Liam Shiels finished with a game-high 33 touches.
Veteran Shaun Burgoyne sat out the last quarter with ice on his troublesome hamstring but Clarkson said it was precautionary.
“He complained about being a bit sore and tired,” Clarkson said.
“There was no point taking a risk with him. We’ll monitor it during the early part of next week.”
Despite the final margin, the Suns dominated territory early, with talls Tom Lynch and Peter Wright combining for three opening-term goals.
But it went pear-shaped for Gold Coast, who only scored 0.5 in the middle quarters.
Coach Stuart Dew was able to find some positives after last week’s narrow loss to St Kilda.
“Our boys had a crack. We were really beaten by some outside class in the end,” he said.
“We had our looks but weren’t able to capitalise.
“I think they kept their feet better and were stronger in the tackles as well.”
Hawthorn took a 37-24 lead into halftime, punctuated just before the break by a high-flying grab from Taylor Duryea.
In line with the theme of the day, he kicked a behind.
The Suns rallied late in the third quarter but squandered their chances, missing three kickable set shots in a row.
Hawthorn found their radar in the dying stages, with skipper Jarryd Roughead icing the win with a major from the final kick of the day.
Dalgety Carrington
Roar Guru
The why's of their age predicament is another discussion all together really, as they can't change that too much within the season. Essentially though, they are a young club trying to forge their growth in a frontier environment. Like any pioneer settlement, it's hard to encourage a huge desire in a potential population go through it and to stick it out. Particularly when there are multiple fatter pastures elsewhere, calling out to those who have the most to offer. Development takes a while and can be more prone to getting the wobbles and stability affecting ripples can be more frequent in a less familiarly structured frontier environment.
Paul D
Roar Guru
Mmm, and why is that age discrepancy Dal? Are people just naturally younger and more beautiful on the Gold Coast? And when is that reasonable equivalence of age and experience going to eventuate? Do you even know what free agency is?
Dalgety Carrington
Roar Guru
Rubbish. Your emotions get the better of you here Paul. Until there's some reasonable equivalence in age and experience, it's too hard to say. The average age gap between these two sides on the weekend was just a slither shy of a whopping 3 years, while the Suns fielded 6 u21's to Hawthorn's measly one. It's a rare team that will stay competitive with that sort of disparity.
Paul D
Roar Guru
The suns are that terrible their aura of enduring crappiness even affects their opposition The suns still lose though. So what happens if they don’t win another game this season? Hmm? At what point does the afl realise that they are wasting their time here no matter how much money they spend, while the players get final say on who plays where?