Round 23 – Hawthorn v Carlton: Round twenty-forgettable

 

Hawthorn v Carlton

MCG,

Saturday September 5,

4:40pm 

 

 

Today was a pretty sad and dismal way to end the home and away season. The weather tried to brighten things up with a bit of sun before the bounce, but it cooled off pretty quickly and I was glad of a coat by game’s end. I was wondering if they’d close off the top section of the MCG (as they sometimes do at Etihad) but in the end the 33,182 crowd was scattered all over.

 

The pre-game shared banner run through went well. The banner with ‘RIP Cooper Ratten’ and ‘Family’ being the only words on it, both the front and back, and each half in the colours of one of the teams. Tanner Ratten brought out the game day ball and presented it to the umpires.

 

I didn’t make many notes at the match, except to highlight how many set shots Hawthorn missed in the first half. What crowd there was remained pretty quiet, not much cheering, booing, or general noise. In fact one of the biggest roars from the crowd came when the scoreboard put up that the Brisbane Lions had defeated the western Bulldogs! The plastic thunder sticks were responsible for the loudest bits, either being banged at quarter time, or stomped on when the crowd departed.

 

At times it seemed the Hawks were being dragged down to the Blues’ level. It was a clumsy tackle that did indeed drag down Isaac Smith in the third quarter, and I hope his injury is not too serious. But Roughead and Gunston kicked a bag of goals, Mitchell amassed another 30 plus possessions, and Gibson did his best intercepting and fisting the ball away. So the Hawks ended this home-and-away section of the season as they began, with a resounding victory over a seasoned rival.

 

After the match it was time to farewell nearby fellow reserve seat holders until next year.

 

 

MATCH DETAILS:

 

HAWTHORN  5.3  9.5  14.7  17.11 (113)

CARLTON  1.2  4.5  5.7  8.8 (56)

 

GOALS:

Hawthorn: 4 Roughead, Gunston; 3 Frawley; 1 Puopolo, Birchall, Sicily, Lewis, Huill, Shiels

Carlton: 2 Everitt, Watson, Walker; 1 Simpson, Kreuzer

 

BEST:

Hawthorn: Gibson, Mitchell, Roughead, Lewis, Gunston

Carlton: Curnow, Cripps

 

Umpires: Stephens Nicholls, Chamberlain.

 

Crowd: 33,182 at the MCG

 

My votes: 3 Gibson (Haw), 2 Mitchell (Haw), 1 Roughead (Haw)

 

 

About Alan Stewart

My first VFL memory is perched on my grandfather's shoulders watching a game at Glenferrie Oval during the school holidays, probably about 1968. Other football immersion is from many hours assisting my father doing maintenance or selling savs at the Tarrawingee football ground during the 1970s.

Comments

  1. Peter Fuller says

    Alan,
    The game certainly didn’t offer much entertainment, but it was pretty evident that the Hawks were just going through the motions. That assessment tempers my pleasure that the Blues managed to get 81 points closer to your mob than that dire Friday evening at Etihad a few weeks ago.
    The tribute to Cooper Ratten, and the acknowledgement of Brett’s involvement at both clubs was a nice touch. There was a moving series of still photographs of Cooper shown on the scoreboard a few minutes before the players came on to the ground.

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