First Final - Hawthorn 1 def Waverley 0
After sealing a top two finish several weeks ago, the Hawks waited several weeks to find out whether they would play Waverley or Camberwell for a spot in the grand final. It was the former after they defeated Essendon in Round 18 to seal the minor premiership. The Hawks were ready, with several weeks of quality training under their belt.
The Hawks started the game with a tight defensive press, giving Waverley few options to outlet the ball from their defense. This led to several turnovers from Waverley that were turned into good Hawthorn attacks. However, it took until about the 20th minute before Hawthorn hit the scoreboard, after the veteran John Stebbings’ strong run from midway between the 25 and the half-line kept the defenders clear. Finally the circle opened up for him to shoot from the top and expertly convert under pressure.
Several further chances were created by the Hawks in the first half, but none taken. Probably the best was a penalty corner drag flick that was well saved by the Waverley keeper.
Our half time lead was encouraging, but the message was to keep up the intensity for the full 70 minutes. As expected, Waverley came out fighting and pushed harder for a goal after a few positional changes. Despite several goal-mouth scraps, crosses and half-chances, the Hawthorn defense held firm under pressure. Oz steered ball after ball through or around the Waverley press time and time again, while Johan in the net scrapped for every ball.
Josh Hawes went down injured and soon after, Dylan Best was sent off midway through the half, forcing the Hawks to defend resolutely for 5 minutes, with Waverley unable to penetrate.
Up the other end, the Hawks continued to create our own chances, including a couple of short corners and several open shots. A penalty stroke was awarded with five minutes remaining after a certain goal was denied only by a defender’s body. P-mac stepped up but it wasn’t to be.
After five further minutes of holding Waverley out, the win was ours and with it, a fourth grand final in five years. We now have another week off to see whether we will play Waverley or Camberwell in the big one.
Get your Hawthorn colours ready for Sunday 19 September! Carn Hawks!
Round 18 - Hawthorn 3 drew Greens 3
Round 17 - Hawthorn 2 def Donc 1
Round 16 - Hawthorn 2 lost to Camb 6
Round 15 - Hawthorn 5 def Ess 0
Round 14 - Hawthorn 4 def MCC 3
Round 13 - Hawthorn 7 def Altona 3
Round 12 - Hawthorn 6 def Albury 1
Round 11 - Hawthorn 2 def Wav 1
Round 10 - Hawthorn 11 def Melb Uni 3
Round 9 - Hawthorn 3 def Greensborough 1
A victory that went some way towards making up for our Round 8 slipup. The Hawks remain in the finals race going into the second half of the year, when captain Josh Hawes returns from the NetherDutchLands to bring the boys home with a wet sail.
Round 8 - Doncaster 4 def Hawthorn 3
A disappointing loss after building a 3-0 lead by half-time. A missed opportunity
Round 7 - Hawthorn 2 def Camberwell 1
By Charlie Tulloch
After suffering a disappointing loss to Essendon, the boys put in a good week on the track in preparation for the tough task of playing Camberwell. With the home-ground advantage, anything less than a win would bring further disappoinment to the group. With George Bazeley back in the net for a one-week cameo on a short break from Perth, the team was bolstered on it’s final line.
The game started at a blistering pace, both teams moving the ball with speed and precision. Despite this, the game was played primarily between 25’s early, without too many real promising chances either way. The Hawks changed all that late in the first half when the favourite of the ladies and current club captain, Jimmy Mulcair, slotted a tomahawk from wide left. Of course he did !
After holding the advantage for a good 10 minutes and continuing to play well and pressure Camberwell’s defence, the Hawks were on the receiving end after a defensive mishap. Two passes later, Camberwell drilled a shot from the inside-left position just past the outstretched Bazeley boot.
Shortly before half time, we lost a man for a couple of minutes rest, so were forced to scramble for a few minutes to hold onto the even scoreline.
The second half was fairly even throughout as both teams created several opportunities that were often thwarted by excellent goalkeeping. With about 10 minutes to play, Hawthorn broke the stalemate as Tommy “multi-bet” Sinclair slammed a shot past Lachie Dreher.
The final 10 minutes saw fatigue setting in. This was a period marked by desperation from both teams, a couple of cramps from the Hawks, and an umpring clinic focusing on some of the “what not to do’s”. That aside, in the end, the Hawks managed to hang on. While we still have more improvement left in the group, this was our first big step in the right direction.
Our BOG for the week goes to Nick Quinn, who had the bench rotating at afl pace. Frenetic is the word.
This week we play Doncaster on Saturday at the State Hockey Centre at the blockbuster time of 6.30pm. There is sure to be a massive crowd…. perhaps. Get there early to reserve yourself a seat.
Round 6 - Hawthorn 1 lost to Essendon 2
By Charlie Tulloch
A tough match out at Essendon resulted in a 2-1 loss to the Hawks. The Bombers started the better team, with a couple of goal-scoring opportunities in the early stages resulting in extremely near misses. One saw Sean Jenner clear the ball off the goal-line with a good trap and clearance.
Hawthorn couldn’t get any flow on the slow and sticky Essendon pitch, struggling to move the ball forward with much momentum. Things started to click midway through the first half, but did not result in goals. Actually it was Essendon who put in the first score off a penalty corner conversion by Al McLennan that we knew was coming, but were powerless to save.
A late goal by John Stebbings after a goal-mouth scrap with the Essendon’s keeper saw the scores level at half time.
The second half saw the Hawks coming out harder and taking the game by the horns. However, we could not find a way to put the ball in the net. As the umpiring descended into chaos, with Tyler Grbic being accused of flattening somebody twice his height, and a series of other bad calls, Hawthorn lost our heads somewhat and got distracted from the job at hand.
About midway through the half, Essendon created a stroke, which was saved by Fred Durst in the net.
But still we pushed, creating several penalty corner chances. One broken down corner led to a full field break-away from Essendon that turned into their second goal and set Hawks the task of fighting for a draw. Despite some good late charges, we couldn’t pull back the much needed goal.
In the end, a disappointing scoreline for the Hawks, who often struggle against Essendon, which leaves us with all the work to do against Camberwell, Doncaster and Greensborough in the last few rounds before the turn of the season.
Come down to Hawthorn this weekend to see the Hawks bounce back - it’s Hawthorn v Camberwell in the first leg of the Hodder-Thornton Cup at 3.30 on Saturday. Should be a good one.
Round 5 - Hawthorn 2 drew MCC 2
By James Osborne
On a fantastic day for hockey at the home of the Hawthorn Hawks, the Hawks came into the match against MCC having defeated Altona 5 - 2 at the SNHC. MCC had also registered a win against the much fancied Camberwell 3 – 1 and were super keen to impress with a new MCC style of play.
The match started in a hurry as soon after the push back the Hawks were in and behind the MCC defence courtesy of a Paul ‘P.Mac’ Mackinnon overhead and Tommy ‘The Gun’ Sinclair slammed it home (with a bit of help from Will Grbic - ed). The Hawks were 1 – 0 up in first 30 seconds of the match. What a way to start.
The match settled down thereafter as MCC tried to work its way back on to level terms. The Hawks were creative but were hurt by numerous turnovers. MCC on the other hand possessed the ball far better and it was only some desperate tackling by Dylan ‘The Wall’ Best and athletic goalkeeping by our Hawks debutant in the net Johan ‘Fred’ Durst.
The match took on a few interesting turns towards the end of the first half. The first was when one of the umpires fainted and had to be helped from the field. Clearly the hockey was bewildering. Secondly, when a rocket of a shot from an MCC forward appeared to hit the side net of the Hawks goal and was awarded as a 16 yard hit to the Hawks. MCC protested believing the ball had gone into goals and through the net. Stranger things then occurred when the MCC coach decided that he would have his opinion heard by the umpires. Unfortunately (for perhaps both of them) one of the MCC players attempted to hold him back from coming onto the pitch and was subsequently tossed like a rag doll against the Hawthorn fence perimeter…..wow.
The Hawks took a 1 – 0 lead at the end of a circa 55 min first half (after delays). The second half did not provide the Hawks with many highlights, but perhaps instead provided us with the necessary things to work on for the next fixture. MCC played their new style of hockey well and the Hawks continued to turn the ball over. There were some good patches of hockey played by the Hawks but they were not enough to keep out MCC. MCC scored an equaliser with some handy work along the baseline and then took the lead via a well rehearsed short corner. Unfortunately for the Hawks the short corner defence did not execute the plan to its liking.
So the Hawks found themselves down with a dozen minutes to play. The attacking Hawks style was promising to come to the table with some slick movement from P. Mac, The Wall, Sean ‘Blue Boy’ Jenner, Jonathon ‘The Saint’ Stebbings and Will ‘Rooboy’ Grbic. This slick movement appeared to be in vein until a short corner two minutes from the end of the second half was awarded and P. Mac flicked the Hawks an equaliser. Luckily the Hawks got out of jail with a point and breathed a huge sigh of relief; MCC did not feel the same way.
The Hawks are in the top four at the close of round 5 and will be travelling to Essendon this Saturday to fight for a win. So come on down and support your Hawthorn Hawks.
Round 4 - Hawthorn 5 defeated Altona 2
Solid win to the Hawks after a 2-2 half-time scoreline.
Round 3 - Hawthorn 15 defeated Albury 1
By Tyler Grbic
In front of a home crowd on a sunny and windy Saturday afternoon, Hawthorn were eager to put last week’s disappointing performance behind them and rejoin the winner’s list. Coming up against Albury-Wodonga (who led Camberwell last week before fading late in the second half to lose 5-3), the Hawks knew a ruthless display of hockey was required. With Jimmy Mulcair missing from the line up, the ever-reliable Sean Jenner stood up to captain the team.
From the outset, Hawthorn’s forward pressure was unforgiving, with any problems from the round 2 Waverley clash seemingly well dealt with during the week. Although this pressure created several goal-shots, the home team failed to convert early on, allowing Albury a sniff in the match. However, the Hawks soon corrected the early squandered opportunities to manufacture a scintillating fifteen minute period of hockey mid-way through the first half to pile on half-a-dozen goals in quick succession.
The goal-rush continued when Bryan Young (sporting a slightly tinted hairstyle) scored another Hawthorn goal as well as cleverly setting up two penalty corners, which Paul MacKinnon was gladly able to convert with his eye-catching drag-flicks. A scrappy final five minutes saw Hawthorn take a whopping 9-0 lead at the break, but they were well aware that their job was only half-way finished.
The second half started off similarly to the first, with the Hawks missing chances in front of goal, but it was the experienced Jonathan Stebbings and Charlie Tulloch who eventually got the scoreboard ticking along once again. Stefan Young played a controlling role in the middle whilst Dylan Best was consistently productive up the right hand side of the ground.
In what was quickly turning into a miserable day for the visitors, Albury finally found some solace when they scored mid-way through the second half, leaving the Hawks determined to deny their opponents any more scoring prospects. Will Grbic’s gut-busting running was awarded late in the match when he scored his first goal of the year, whilst a mildly black-eyed Tom Sinclair made a day of it finishing with an impressive five goals; the finest of which coming late in the match when he eliminated multiple opponents and then clobbered a tomahawk high into the corner of the net to cap off a brilliant day for Hawthorn.
Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of the Hawks’ 15-1 score line was the post-match meeting in which several areas of improvement were identified by the group, signalling they are unwavering in their pursuits of excellence for the season. Whether the group can continue to improve will be put to the test when they come up against Altona as part of Hockey Victoria’s State League 1 Super Saturday line up at the State Netball Hockey Centre this weekend. Be there at 5pm to cheer on the Hawks!
Scorers: Sinclair (5), MacKinnon (4), Tulloch (3), Stebbings (1), B. Young (1), W. Grbic (1).
Round 2 - Hawthorn 3 lost to Waverley 5
By Will Grbic
Round 2 saw the Men’s State League hit the road to take on Waverley. After coming off a good win last week against MUHC the group was confident that they could put in a good performance against Waverley, although in recent times, the Hawthorn boys had struggled on the two toned Waverley turf. The game started promisingly for the Hawks with some solid defence and attacking play resulting in some early goal shots and penalty corners, however they were unable to convert any of these opportunities. About 15 minutes into the first half Waverley found some space in the midfield and were able to break through the Hawthorn defence for the first goal of the match. What followed after that could only be described as a disaster for the Hawks as Waverley converted some of their many opportunities in the next 15 minutes to be up 4-0 with 5 minutes to go in the half. With morale looking low in the Hawks camp, the players dug deep and gained a penalty corner on the whistle of half time. This was converted with a classy drag flick by Paul MacKinnon. The score was back to 4-1 and the Hawks headed into half time with a glimmer of hope.
The second half started very similarly to the first half with both teams attacking and defending strongly trying to get the breakthrough that would either end or bring the match to life. Hawthorn just could not seem to stop Waverley from bringing the ball out of their defence with relative ease, and on the other hand it always seemed like a struggle for the Hawks to bring it out of defence. However, Waverley were not able to put another goal in to finish the Hawks off, and with 15 minutes left, Paul MacKinnon converted another drag flick to bring the score back to 4-2. The Hawks were back into the game and pressed hard for the next few minutes but an untimely yellow card and a costly turn over coming out of defence resulted in Waverley relieving the pressure by scoring another goal to take the score out to 5-2 with less than 10 minutes to go. The Hawks attempted to fight back, but the margin was just too great, and scoring opportunities were few and far between. A penalty stroke was awarded after James Mulcair was deprived his shot at goal, and resulted in Paul MacKinnon converting for his third goal of the match, but with only 30 seconds on the clock the game was done. Waverley had come out victors for their first win of the season and the Hawks were left to wonder what might have been.
The Hawks, currently sitting fourth on ladder, will be trying to redeem themselves this Saturday at 2.00pm against tough State League 1 newcomers Albury at the Hawthorn Hockey Centre.
Round 1 - Hawthorn defeat Melbourne University
By Jimmy Mulcair
After a disappointing finish to season 2009, Hawthorn were keen to make a good start and to make amends in 2010.
The boys have worked hard with new coach Todd Faulds in the preseason and are confident of a strong year ahead.
The first test of the season was in Melbourne Uni who were promoted to State League 1 after taking out the League 2 premiership last season.
The game started positively for the Hawks who controlled possession and moved the ball well around the pitch. After early pressure on the Melbourne Uni defence the ball popped up for James Mulcair in mid circle who flicked the ball top left to get the Hawks off to a great start.
The Hawks continued to control the game when not long afterwards Tommy (Fevola) Sinclair threw a speculative back stick pass 70 metres down the sideline to Jonathan (how much was that haircut again?) Stebbings who weaved some magic to beat four defenders and slot the ball coolly past the fast approaching keeper. Fantastic goal.
With not more than 5 minutes to go in the first half, James Mulcair scored again to make it 3-0 and put Hawthorn in a great position going into half time.
The start of the second half was much the same as the first. Jonathan Stebbings set up an unmarked James Mulcair for an early goal and to complete his hatrick.
The Hawks continued to find themselves with plenty of scoring opportunities but unfortunately could not finish them off. Whilst the Hawks somewhat took their foot off the pedal they fell asleep to allow Melbourne Uni to score a soft goal against the run of play.
Up stepped Paul (PMac) McKinnon to make it 5-1 with a textbook flick off a short corner. The Uni keeper would have done well to even see the ball.
Melbourne Uni were continually frustrated by some rock solid defence especially from Dylan Best and James Osborne.
To round off the scoring, Stefan (Richie Sambora) Young had luck on his side as his short corner flick came off the post to hit the keeper in the back and then deflect into the goal.
Whilst the 6-1 win was a great way to start the season the Hawks can still see areas of improvement is still required especially in the attacking circle.
Next week should be a cracking game as the team take on Waverly away. Please show your support and head down to Waverly to support the Hawks.
Hawthorn 6 – Melbourne Uni 1
Scorers: James Mulcair (3), Jonathan Stebbings (1), Paul McKinnon (1), Stefan Young (1).