SEN footy analyst Cam Mooney rates Hawthorn’s defensive effort to shut down Adelaide as the best of the season.
Hawthorn restricted the previously free-wheeling Crows to three goals after half time to record one of the upsets of a season producing them on a weekly basis.
Coming into the match Adelaide was averaging 122 points per game at home but mustered just 82 – 24 after half time – to lose their fourth game of the year. Mooney, who witnessed the Hawks’ demolition live at Adelaide Oval, says the defensive web deployed by the embattled former champions was a thing of beauty.
“I haven’t seen a more compete defensive performance form a team than the one I saw from Hawthorn,” he told SEN Afternoons.
“When the Crows tried to switch the ball you could see 18 Hawthorn players move side-to-side, almost as one.
“It was brilliant to watch.”
The win lifts Hawthorn to five wins for the season and spurned finals talk given the evenness of the competition.
Even coach Alastair Clarkson was buying into the debate.
“If we play well enough who knows what might happen but it’s just about doing the basics well and seeing these young guys develop,” he said.
The upset win brings with it a sharper focus on the future of Josh Gibson who missed the match through injury.
The 33-year-old has played 60 of the Hawks past 61 matches but is out of contract at season’s end.