Hawks too strong despite Saints star causing nightmares
Shayne Hope |
Hawthorn have given their top-four hopes another boost with a grinding 20-point victory over St Kilda despite Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera’s career-best disposal haul.
Mabior Chol celebrated his 100-game milestone as one of the Hawks’ 10 goal-kickers in the 14.10 (94) to 10.14 (74) triumph at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night.
It lifted Sam Mitchell’s men into fourth spot with an 11-5 record that keeps them just two premiership points behind the second-placed Brisbane Lions.
Jack Gunston (three goals), Nick Watson and Chol (two each) all hit the scoreboard as Hawthorn’s superior efficiency in attack ultimately told the tale.
Lloyd Meek was outstanding in the ruck and ex-St Kilda backman Josh Battle shone in defence despite jeers from his former fans throughout the match.
Jai Newcombe (22 disposals, seven clearances) and Connor Nash (19, eight) did plenty of the grunt work in the middle.
But the Hawks were on the wrong end of a 53-42 inside-50 count, leaving coach Mitchell unsure whether his glass was half-empty or half-full.
“You could look at it form a positive lens and say we kicked a reasonable score from the amount of inside-50s that we had,” he said.
“The other way to look at it is, ‘Why are we only going inside-50 42 times?’
“It was one of those games where I’m not sure too many people are rushing home to watch the replay.”
Mitchell lauded his side’s maturity as they regained the ascendancy every time St Kilda looked as though they might fight back into the contest.
The Hawks led 6.6 to 3.6 at the main break and rode some pressure early in the third quarter before putting a break on their opponents and seeing out a relatively comfortable win.
It came despite the best efforts of St Kilda playmaker Wanganeen-Milera and emerging star Max Hall.
Hall tallied 27 touches, five clearances and three goals, while out-of-contract gun Wanganeen-Milera had a career-best 43 disposals and 1004 metres gained as clubs fight for his signature behind the scenes.
“I’m going to have nightmares about him,” Mitchell said.
“We scouted him, we tried so many things, but we just couldn’t stop him. He was just too good.
“Just wherever he is, even when he was on the bench I was worried about him by the end.”
St Kilda (5-11) fell to a fourth consecutive defeat after managing just three goals from 25 forward entries in the first half.
They added a wasteful 4.4 from 11 shots in the final term.
“The ability to connect was really disappointing,” Saints coach Ross Lyon said.
“We turned it around a bit in the second half but we were inefficient and they just scored a bit easily, which has been a bit of a trend that we’re trying to tighten up.
“So that was disappointing.”
AAP
