West Coast –16.11 (107)
Hawthorn –13.9 (87)
The Eagles scored an unlikely upset against an indifferent Hawthorn who tried but were (as unbelievable as it sounds) just not good enough.
It is a game that will most likely remembered as the arrival of Nic Naitanui and the end of the Hawks 2009 premiership aspirations.
Big moment
Mid-way in the 4th quarter, the ball was in the West Coast goal-square with Hawthorn in possession, albeit pressured. Lewis tried to kick it out of the congestion for Nic Naitanui to smother, gather, sell the dummy and kick the goal.
It was all West Coast from then onwards.
Key Players for the West Coast
• Mark LeCras – The Eagles best forward once again. His hands in these conditions were a highlight.
• Andrew Embley –Typical hard-running from the veteran who played the conditions very well with 29 possessions.
• Shannon Hurn – In horrid conditions his kicking was exceptional. Had the ball 26 times and everyone was straight to his teammates.
• Nic Naitanui – Pretty darn good for a 2nd gamer. The first 3 quarters had flashes of brilliance with prolonged periods of nothing. He then kicked 3 crucial 4th quarter goals to essentially win the game for the Eagles.
Key Players for Hawthorn
• Sam Mitchell – The captain tried everything to drag his team over the line. Everything. He had 40 possessions and 13 clearances.
• Brad Sewell – A fine performance from Sewell as usual. finished with 32 possessions with 13 of them being contested.
• Luke Hodge – 30 possessions in the backline with Stengline “tagging him”. Used it very well as you would expect from him.
• Jarryd Roughead – Kicked 5 goals in a losing side. Can’t complain with that.
Musings from the match
• The wind was unbelievable in the game with the rain later on adding to the games shocking skills.
• The 71% disposal efficiency shows as much.
• The Hawks lost Mark Williams early in the 3rd with an unknown knee-injury.
• Xavier Ellis and Brent Guerra were basically forced to play injured to add to the Hawks woes.
• The Hawks main issue was in maintaining the momentum; they kicked 5 goals in the 3rd quarter yet let Kerr kick one late towards the end to reduce the margin to 3 points at the end of the quarter.
• Lance Flanklin kicked 4 goals and did pretty well to make contests, but he’s added weight clearly lessens his agility which is why he was so good last year.
• Chris Masten had one of his best games of the year with his hard running on full display. His ball usage was as good as if seen from him as well. Surprising given the conditions.
• Daniel Kerr had little impact in the game bar that goal in the 3rd, with Whitecross and Bateman having successful stints on him. He then was moved on to Mitchell in the 4th and did a pretty good job.
• Quinten Lynch shouldered the load of the Ruck with Naitanui having runs in their as well.
• So that’ll be the Hawks year done? With the Bulldogs, Collingwood and Geelong in the next 4 weeks, it could go either way, especially considering that they play well against the Pies and Geelong traditionally. What do you think?
• That’s not how you tank West Coast?!?!?!
SuperCoach news
• Sam Mitchell’s excellent game was backed up by and excellent points haul of 160pt’s.
• I guess handballing isn’t too bad for SuperCoach with Matt Priddis scoring 141pt’s with 29 handballs and 6 kicks.
• Luke Hodge had his best game in a while with 111pt’s scored tonight. He’ll go up to $443 000 so get on.
SuperCoach scores and game stats from the SuperFooty match site
Tags: Andrew Embley, Brad Sewell, Jarryd Roughead, Luke Hodge, Mark LeCras, Nic Naitanui, Sam Mitchell, Shannon Hurn
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