Hawthorn – 10.13 (73)
North Melbourne – 9.10 (64)
In absolutely horrendous conditions at Aurora Stadium, the Hawks won in a thriller to keep their slim finals hopes alive, thanks a lot to Lance Franklin’s 4 last-quarter goals.
North Melbourne again just came up short in what was another frustrating last quarter for them.
Big moment
16 minutes into the 4th quarter and with two-goals already for the quarter; Lance Franklin took the ruck contest in the Hawks forward-50. He essentially took his tap-down, put the ball on his boot and through a goal in one foul motion.
That goal put the Hawks only a few points down, with two more goals following to win them the game.
Key Players for the Hawthorn
Lance Franklin – Finally got on his bike’ and was a better payer for it. He was the dominant player on the ground with his excellent contested marking finishing with 4.4 for the day.
Luke Hodge – Was inspirational in the last quarter, with everything good that the Hawks did coming from him. He is in excellent form.
Brad Sewell – I thought that he was better than his skipper with his ability to keep his feet which is something that usually doesn’t suit the wet. The amount of time he got the ball away to a team-mate with North players hanging off him was great.
Key Players for North Melbourne
Liam Anthony – The third gamer was the best for North with an excellent game in which he got 25 possessions and used it better than most on the ground. Took an excellent mark when the game was in the balance.
Andrew Swallow – He had an amazing 13 tackles for the game in conditions that suited him. Got the ball and moved it forward.
Adam Simpson – Played well in the conditions slapping and pushing the ball forward. Finished with 20 possessions for the game.
Musings from the match
• That rain was torrential in the first-half. Visibility was shocking!
• You have to feel for North. They pretty-much led all day, only to be run over in the last quarter. Again.
• Both teams are really going to struggle next week with the hard and wet slog from today.
• North had 111 tackles which was 2 off the record set by Geelong in 2007 against Brisbane.
• Luke Hodge finally played an entire game in the midfield. The Hawk supporters are singing hallelujah.
• The top 5 Hawks – Franklin, Sewell, Hodge Mitchell and Lewis pretty much dragged the Hawks over the line.
• Franklin was reported for “Rough conduct”/kneeing which will surely be thrown out.
• There will be a few things to come from the Match Review Panel though. It was a spiteful game at times.
• Stephen Gilham took what was a match-saving mark against Hale in the last few minutes’ under-pressure. If the Hawks sneak into the 8’; his inclusion will be a large part of the reason for making it.
• So can the Hawks make the 8’ though? They will be hard-up against it against the Pies due to the 6-day turnaround and the wet-conditions (although they dominated them last year – it scarred me as a Pie fan) for next week. They are in with a shot for sure.
• North will win a game soon with their style of attacking football that they now play.
SuperCoach news
Cyril Rioli struggled on his return today with only 47pt’s. He’s price is now going to be below $400 000.
Luke Hodge is officially back. He’s been averaging 122pt’s since round 13 and after this week, will be valued at just under $500 000 after being around $450 000 before the start of this round.
This was Lance Franklin’s best performance since round 11 last year against Essendon. It’s too early to say if he has turned the corner, but his style of play was excellent today.
Liam Anthony’s performance scored him an excellent 148pt’s in only his third game. From $94 000, he will go up to $205 200. I sure hope like hell, you didn’t miss the boat.
SuperCoach scores and game stats from the SuperFooty match day center price rises from TooSerious
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