Dylan Moore’s snap for goal was touched on the line just before it went over with a Giants player leaping high and tipping the end of the ball before it crossed.
Moore under struck his kick but it was some impressive athleticism from the Giants.
“That is not the padding, that is the stitching on the padding,” Fox Footy’s Dermott Brereton joked.
Hawks 1, GWS 0 with 15 mins to go in Q1.
These two charts show the difference in Hawthorn’s stats since Will Day’s return.
No late changes for Hawks and the Giants. Luke Breust (Hawks) and Toby McMullin (Giants) are the subs.
Sam Mitchell now likes the cut of Hawthorn’s cloth.
The confidence in his team is backed up by an impressive run of AFL form – after losing their first five games, they have won five of their past seven.
They made Adelaide, another team who had been rallying, look pedestrian early in last Saturday’s win at the MCG.
But now the emerging Hawks come up against GWS, top-four contenders who will be a much sterner test of their abilities.
What Mitchell points to is that earlier this season the Hawks tried to cut their cloth depending on the opposition.
That didn’t work, especially when they tried to keep the ball off Melbourne in round two and were out of the game by quarter-time.
Now the Hawks are backing themselves more often.
“Every week we have this balancing act between how much do we change according to the team we’re playing, and how much do we stick to our system,” Mitchell said.
“Probably early in the year we did a lot of changing, according to who we were playing.
“We’ve been a little more consistent of late. We want to play our game. If that isn’t working, we’ll continue to make changes throughout the game.
“But we’ll certainly continue to give our players the chance to play in an offensive manner, to start the game.”
As Mitchell says repeatedly, Hawthorn are a work in progress. He feels they were lucky at times that the Crows did not put them under more pressure.
They will need to be at their best against GWS, who are coming off the bye and their last-start win over Geelong.
The Giants had been struggling, but the away win over the Cats was big.
The Giants’ victory over Geelong at GMHBA Stadium showed GWS can win at any venue.
It again showed their ability to play well on the road, and Mitchell said Launceston will hold no fears for them.
The Hawks this season are yet to beat a team currently in the top eight – the Giants are seventh – although they only lost to Port Adelaide at the last gasp.
While Hawthorn have named an unchanged line-up, Callan Ward (illness) and Callum Brown (suspension) return for GWS.
“I feel like when he’s in the side, we’re definitely a better team. He just adds such a different aspect to the forward line,” Giants teammate Jake Riccardi said of Brown.
“He’s so fast but he can take a mark, so I feel like for opposition teams when they come against us, there’s not really a set guy that can go to him and say ‘you’re playing on him’, because he’s got so many different aspects to his game.
“He can beat you on the ground and beat you in the air. I feel like he’s really the last piece of the puzzle for us.”
AAP
G’day everyone and welcome to our AFL Saturday live blog.
I’m Roy Ward and I’ll be leading the line today and tonight as we follow the three big matches starting with Hawthorn and GWS Giants in Launceston at 1.45pm followed by West Coast v North Melbourne at Optus Stadium in Perth at 4.30pm and completed by St Kilda v Gold Coast at Marvel Stadium at 7.30pm tonight. All times AEST.
Enjoy the hours to come.
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