Port Adelaide vs Hawthorn - Aami Stadium - Saturday
Port Adelaide - 13th - 6-11 - 79.91%
Hawthorn - 6th - 9-7-1 - 107.71%
Saturday afternoon football at Aami Stadium provides an interesting contest this week.
Hawthorn continued their resurgence last week whilst Port Adelaide produced a timely showdown victory to open the account for Matthew Primus and break the worst drought in the clubs history.
Hawthorn are in many ways experiencing the swings and roundabouts of footy.
After their slow start to the season, they were on the right end of several close games that got them back in the hunt. Tight wins over Richmond, Sydney, Port Adelaide, Hawthorn and Essendon got them up and firing again.
But with top four in their sites they have gone down by two points in a see sawing affair with Geelong, and played out a thrilling draw with St.Kilda when Cyril Rioli had the game in his hands prior to a costly interchange infringement.
You win some, you lose some as they say, but the results don't cloud the facts when it comes to the Hawks. And the facts are that the hunger and drive is back in this Hawthorn team.
Their defence may be young, but they are getting the job done, the drive out of the midfield has been enormous, and the forward line is functioning well again with both Franklin and it appears Roughead in good form again.
Cyril Rioli has been that X factor. His pace and flair has been a huge boost for the Hawks since they injected it into the midfield.
Hawthorn's pressure skills have improved dramatically as well. These stats indicate usually when a side is up and about or not, and the Hawks have gone from bottom four in spoils, tackles and inside fifties conceded to top four in all of those stats.
They are also sharing the footy. Two of their last three matches have seen them have the third and fifth most disposals they have ever recorded in a game.
Lewis, Hodge, Mitchell, Sewell, Rioli, Bateman, Young and Ellis are all in good form and the run and spread of the Hawks in the glory days of 2008 are back.
They are more shaky in defence then they were back then, but that is a work in progress. Stratton looks the goods, Gilham and Gibson are solid and Murphy has improved a lot on last year.
However last week Riewoldt and Koschitzke alone took 9 marks Inside Fifty between them, but the plus side is, Port's attacking combination doesn't have two quality talls.
Jay Schulz is ok, but just ok, and the rest of their goals tend to come from Ebert, Westhoff, Grey, Motlop etc, who are mediums to smalls.
Hawthorn should have the arsenal to deal with that forward line.
Fatigue could be a factor also, Port are coming off a trip to Darwin, followed by the emotion of a showdown where they appeared to treat it as their Grand Final so the response this week will be interesting.
Warren Tredrea has provided some emotional impetus during the week with his retirement and Port Adelaide should be very keen to pay him the respect he deserves.
255 games, 549 goals, best and fairests, captain of a premiership team, it's an impressive resume for a man who made his debut in the Power's second ever game.
He has been part of the furniture since day one, and will go down probably as the club's greatest ever player.
He will be given a lap of honour this weekend and that will no doubt lift the Power.
However much like the Choco announcement from three weeks ago it will most likely be short lived.
When their confidence is up, Port are ok, and it should be up now, but against the tough disciplined sides they get worked over and found out pretty quickly, and much like the Collingwood game, expect Hawthorn to grind them into the ground eventually.
Hawthorn's rolling zone is starting to tie teams up again, and the way to counter is much the same as when you play St.Kilda, you need to use pace and precision to run the ball through the zone and try to get over the back of the defensive press and isolate the opposition defenders one on one.
Port Adelaide are the worst team at turning rebound 50's into Inside fifties, they are the worst team at turning point kick ins into inside fifties (14%) and the lowest scoring team in the competition since Round 7.
So the recipe does not smell all that flash for them.
Hawthorn historically don't enjoy Aami Stadium all that much, losing nine of their past eleven at the venue, but generally circumstances and form have been factors in that. Both of those on this occasion point to Hawthorn.
Win this, and the glimmer of top four remains alive, lose it, and the hardest road of all to a flag appears the likely outcome.
Hawthorn will have too much midfield run, and too much offensive fire power to drop this one, and will take their 10th win of the season.
Hawthorn by 32 points.
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