Hawthorn’s indifferent 2020 campaign has continued on Friday night, after the club was kept to its lowest score under Alastair Clarkson’s reign.
The Hawks booted just three goals in the loss against Collingwood, with their 27 point haul being Hawthorn’s lowest score since Round 9 1975.
The previous lowest score by the Hawks under Clarkson was 31 points, with the club losing key forward Jon Patton to a hamstring injury during the early stages of the first term.
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And it’s a performance which sums up their season, with the Hawks sitting at 3-3, with a percentage less than 90.
As for whether Hawthorn will play finals, St Kilda champion Nick Riewoldt thought their inconsistency could come back to bite.
Asked if they’re a finals team, Riewoldt told Fox Footy post-game: “I don’t think so.
“You look at the logjam this season is going to be, based on what we saw tonight and their percentage is a bit of an insight into when their good footy is up and about they are really competitive.”
Riewoldt believed it was hard to judge the Hawthorn forward line given the lack of decent ball and clean ball inside 50, but suggested their forward line “looked impotent”.
Alastair Clarkson walks off the ground. Photo: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images.Source: Getty Images
Lions legend Jonathan Brown lamented the Hawks’ poor ball use out the defensive 50, which hasn’t been helped by a “surprising” selection move.
“It’s a big problem – it’s been a problem all year,” Brown told Fox Footy.
“If you’re going to play four tall defenders, including a ruckman in Ben McEvoy who started there, you’re going to struggle to bring the ball out of defence.
“What’s stood out is they’ve been kicking it backwards, but long kicks backwards. I definitely know Alastair Clarkson wouldn’t be directing them to do those sorts of things, so they’ve been completely out of whack.
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“You just wonder who’s bringing the ball out of defence there. We know Blake Hardwick’s one of those guys and young Will Day has come in for his first game as well, but it’s a big task in your first game to be the main ball distributor.
“I’m surprised Clarko’s persevered with it. (Sam) Frost, (James) Frawley and (Ben) McEvoy are not known for their precision kicking coming out of defence, so it’s a surprising move they’ve stuck with that for so long.”
Riewoldt said the Hawks’ kicking performance against Collingwood was a far cry from their glory days.
“It’s clear they need a bit of use out of the back-half,” Riewoldt added.
“When you think of the great Hawthorn teams across halfback with (Grant) Birchall and (Luke) Hodge and (Shaun) Burgoyne at times, at the moment when they’re marking it and intercepting it, they look great.
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“When they’re not, they look like they’re struggling at ground level and they don’t get the bounce out of the back-half that you’d like.”
Longtime AFL analyst Rob Harding shared Riewoldt’s view, explaining Hawthorn couldn’t be expected to move the ball like previous years, given the changes to on-field personnel.
– with Ben Waterworth
