Two-time premiership player David King has broken down how Hawthorn “disarmed” Adelaide and the genius of coach Alastair Clarkson.
The Hawks held the Crows to seven goals, despite allowing them 440 disposals and King said Adelaide was simply out-coached.
“They lost the clearances by nine and they lost contested football by 18 and smashed them (Adelaide),” King told SEN’s Whateley.
“In the premiership era (2013-2015), they were 11th in the AFL for contested possession.
“He (Clarkson) has a way of allowing a weakness to still be there and coaching the game and orchestrating the game back to their strengths.
“He makes it a turnover game and he makes it a pressure game in the Hawthorn forward half.
“They kicked 10 goals 10 (behinds) from forward half again, they had 19 forward-50 tackles, it’s pretty simple what he tries to get his boys to do.”
King gave insight into how Hawthorn took Adelaide’s strengths away.
“When you can’t sleep on the Red Eye home, you watch behind-the-goals vision,” he said.
“I had a look at the third quarter, the discipline of their backs, when the ball was in Hawthorn’s forward line, most teams press right up the ground and then when Adelaide get that fast movement out of their backline, usually there’s a player out the back, no, not against Hawthorn.
“They held James Sicily, they held James Frawley, they held Ben Stratton. One player was always the pillar at the back, miles from being involved in any sort of press.
“That’s coaching. He disarmed the Crows at their strength, which is that fast ball movement out of their backline.”
