Hawthorn youngster Oliver Hanrahan makes his point with a crucial last-quarter goal against the Pies. Photo: GETTY IMAGES
No team maintains dominance over any other for too long in the AFL these days. Except, it seems Hawthorn against Collingwood.
The Hawks have done it time and again to the Pies in recent years, 11 wins from their past 12 clashes heading into Friday night’s clash, one of particular significance for a Collingwood side on the rebound from a big loss last week.
The Pies led for all but 15 minutes, of a scrappy, ugly clash, too. Except for when it really counted as Hawthorn came over the top, booting five goals to three in the final term after having managed just four goals to three-quarter time.
But this was no steal. It was the Hawks who’d dominated the inside 50s, only their lack of potency, as it has for much of the season, costing them what might have been a better lead.
Indeed, how Collingwood had the lead at the first break was anyone’s guess. For this was a game in which the quarter time scoreboard was completely unrepresentative of the half-hour of action which had just taken place.
The first change came with Hawthorn having had more disposals, won more clearances and contested ball and, most significantly, having racked up 18 inside 50s to Collingwood’s paltry five. Yet the Pies led by 13 points.
Those paltry five entries had at least yielded four goals straight. Hawthorn, in contrast had a wasteful 1.5 on the board, plus a certain goal left behind when Jack Gunston unusually fresh-aired a ground ball in the goalsquare.
Blake Hardwick had the only goal after winning a holding the ball decision on Will Hoskin-Elliott. But that merely redressed the one he’d given away after himself being caught red-handed in possession by Brody Mihocek and Jamie Elliott.
Adam Treloar steered another through for the Pies after finding himself some space inside 50. And Jordan de Goey made it three goals to one after some defensive heat applied by Josh Daicos forced Irishman Conor Glass into a nervous little chip which eluded Jarman Impey and bounced into the grateful De Goey’s lap.
Then James Sicily was nailed in a tackle by Callum Brown, big man Mason Cox rolling the shot through for another goal after taking the advantage.
It took 11 minutes of the second term for the next major, and it was Hawthorn’s second after Mitch Lewis marked a superbly-weighted kick from Luke Breust. James Worpel made it three not long after with a clever snap, and the Hawks would have hit the front were it not for a couple of uncharacteristic missed from Breust.
Daicos gave Collingwood just a little more breathing space after converting a free kick conceded by the Hawks’ Tom Scully. But it was hard going for both teams, possession at a premium, and both the Pies and Hawks reluctant to surrender it without being sure of their options.
And that was the case even when the goals were coming. When they dried up in the third term, this became an exquisitely awful game to watch, devoid of scoring, full of fumbles as the mid-winter dew descended and ball-handling became a nightmare.
Breust brought the Hawks within one point just seven minutes after the restart. And from, almost literally, nothing of consequence happened for the next 19 minutes.
Finally, as even diehards began nodding off in front of TVs across the land, a bit of brilliance aroused the comatose match from its slumber, De Goey bursting away from a ball-up just inside the Collingwood 50 and snapping beautifully across his body.
That made it 10 points again, and in the context of what had come previously, that felt like a lot, even though it really wasn’t. And the gap looked a chasm once Will Hoskin-Elliott had the first of the last term on the board five minutes in, 18 points the biggest margin of the entire match.
And suddenly, after three quarters of stupefyingly dour football, things magically opened up.
New kid Oliver Hanrahan’s snap brought the gap back to a couple of goals. Then, in one of their most coherent passages of play all night, the Hawks worked the ball to milestone man Ben McEvoy, playing his 200th game.
Only two minutes later, Mitch Lewis converted a free kick, and almost incredibly, Hawthorn was in front. Hanrahan’s second made it nine points the Hawks way with by now only five minutes remaining.
Collingwood finally stirred, Brayden Sier’s snap bringing it back to three points. But the Pies had given Hawthorn a taste, and from the next centre bounce, Breust ran into an open goal.
By the time Hoskin-Elliott slotted another, the Pies had just under two minutes to restore a lead which had been theirs for a so long. But Hawthorn has been here many, many times.
It was the Hawks who won the crucial final centre clearance. Who rushed the last point of the game. And who grabbed the big last couple of marks, to Jack Gunston and Tim O’Brien, to soak up the remaining seconds.
Of course Hawthorn isn’t the power it once was. And Collingwood may well recover from these pretty ordinary couple of weeks. But it seems despite that, some things in football don’t change much. And after what is now 12 wins in 13 meetings, you’d have to agree the Hawks’ stranglehold over the Pies is one of them.
HAWTHORN 1.5 3.8 4.9 9.13 (67)
COLLINGWOOD 4.0 5.4 6.7 9.9 (63)
GOALS – Hawthorn: Breust 2, Hanrahan 2, Lewis 2, Hardwick, Worpel, McEvoy. Collingwood: De Goey 2, Hoskin-Elliott 2, Mihocek, Treloar, Cox, Daicos, Sier.
BEST – Hawthorn: Sicily, Smith, Impey, Lewis, Hardwick, Worpel. Collingwood: Crisp, Treloar, Sidebottom, De Goey, Moore, Phillips
UMPIRES: Meredith, Findlay, Fleer
CROWD: 66,407 at the MCG
