Senior players, too, would have had Hinkley’s back, given the calls for him to expedite the handover to Josh Carr.
Port’s first hour was their finest since last season – comparable to their effort against Sydney here late last home-and-away season, when Port booted a dozen goals to two.
Ken Hinkley’s Port came out with a real intensity.Credit: Getty Images
Hawthorn were sufficiently embarrassed by that first hour that their skipper James Sicily – never one to pull verbal punches – remarked to Channel Seven at the break that: “We need to pull our heads out of our arses and get to work.”
They did get to work, but they were at least half an hour late.
The Hawks extracted not only their heads from their backsides, as Sicily suggested, they began to extract the football from contests. Missing their premier midfielder Will Day with a major foot injury, it was their 2024 best and fairest Jai Newcombe who provided the initial impetus, along with ruckman Lloyd Meek, and wily veteran forward Jack Gunston, who finished with six goals.
Sicily – sent forward in what is a now-standard move in Sam Mitchell’s playbook – provided the other danger in attack, booting a couple of goals and creating more.
But the bird had flown, and there would be no Ginnivan aeroplane imitations, or strutting celebrations.
Nick Watson wasn’t at his best.Credit: AFL Photos
The diminutive star of the opening burst was not Hawthorn’s wizard Nick Watson. Rather, it was smokin’ Joe Richards, the small forward Port prised out of Collingwood with a longer-term contract and the promise of a regular game. Richards booted two clever goals and set up another.
For the formative first hour, their ball movement was more ad hoc than Hokball.
Loading
Port’s blitzkrieg was powered, so to speak, by domination in every facet of the game, and no player encapsulated the 12-goal first half than their skipper Connor Rozee, whom Hinkley had cleverly deployed at half-back, rather than putting him in the centre square with fellow musketeers Zak Butters and Jason Horne-Francis.
At half-time, Rozee had gained a staggering 515 metres, and had a dozen highly damaging kicks. Unmolested – the Hawks seemed to forget they had opponents in the first 45 minutes – Rozee was able to charge down the field and boot two goals.
Horne-Francis and Butters, who are among the game’s elite mids, combined for more than 60 disposals over the whole game, and unlike some teammates, they remained productive for much of the second half.
The Hawks barely touched the ball in the first 20 minutes, and were smashed in clearances. Defensively, they were either lacking intent, or uncertain, in that match-defining first half hour, when the revved-up Port piled on six goals to one.
It cannot be said they will have gained confidence from that second-half charge. Port is the team that needed belief.
Rather, as per Sicily’s half-time comments, the Hawks might have gained a necessary touch of humility.
On this night, they met a team determined to make a statement – in defence of their coach, to their fans and to themselves.
In eight days, they’ll meet a team made of sterner stuff, with whom the Hawks have a far deeper, storied rivalry: Geelong.
Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter.
