Hawthorn Hawks vs GWS Giants: AFL live scores, blog

Sunday afternoon football takes us to the home of footy, as Hawthorn host a high flying GWS Giants outfit at the MCG. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 3:20pm (AEST).

This clash sees the GWS Giants, who are sitting at third – fresh off a relatively comfortable win against St Kilda – take on a middling Hawthorn outfit, who are themselves coming off a demoralising loss against Melbourne.

Plenty of stories surrounding this clash, then. And plenty of opportunity for both sides to garner what will be an integral win.

Hawthorn would desperately want to defeat a string GWS side in order to strengthen their increasingly faint finals hopes, while GWS – who have won five of their last six – would want to garner the four points to ensure they are continually in top four contention.

Hawthorn, too, have another dramatic side story – there has been plenty of conjecture surrounding Jordan Roughead and his demotion to the VFL, and the Hawks would want to show they can win without the champion.

In addition to Roughead, the Hawks have made a trio of other selection changes. They’ve also omitted Daniel Howe and Kieran Brand, while Chad Wingard is out with injury. James Frawley, Jonathon Ceglar, Jack Scrimshaw and James Cousins all return to the side.

GWS, too, have made four changes after last week’s win. Aidan Corr and Shane Mumford are injured, whilst young pair Isaac Cummings and Jackson Hately have been omitted.

Several vital players return, not least of which are Phil Davis and Josh Kelly. Dawson Simpson and Zac Langdon are also included in Sunday’s outfit.

Prediction
The Giants are the sensible pick in this one, and they are who I will be backing. I entirely expect that Hawthorn will refuse to be blown away easily, and perhaps snatch the lead during some points of the clash, but it’s the Giants who are performing a whole lot better across the board, and they’ll win.

GWS by 16 points.