A big 65-point AFL NAB Challenge pre-season win has Hawthorn primed for another run at the flag in 2014.
The Hawks smashed North Melbourne 0.18.10 (118)-0.7.11(53) at Aurora Stadium on Friday night in a lacklustre showing from the Kangaroos.
Hawthorn kicked the first six goals of the contest, three of which came from Shiels, despite leaving a number of their better defensive options back at home.
Excellent performances from Sam Mitchell, Bradley Hill, Liam Shiels, and Will Langford, plus bags of goals Tim O’Brien and Jarryd Roughead, helped the Hawks to the sizeable victory.
Langford, the 71st pick in last year’s draft, racked up 19 disposals, six tackles, kicked three goals and did and fantastic job shutting down Jack Ziebell while 19-year-old O’Brien booted three majors of his own.
Hawthorn youngsters Kurt Heatherly and Derick Wanganeen also made cases for future call-ups and are a couple of names worth keeping on in the future.
Matt Suckling’s made a positive return from last year’s devastating knee injury to provide his typical beautiful ball use to the tune of 13 possessions as a substitute.
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Off-season St Kilda recruit Ben McEvoy was seldom used in the ruck and played much of the game deep in the forward line. He took three marks but failed to score.
Daniel Wells led the Roos with 23 touches and Aaron Black kicked three goals.
Recruit Robin Nahas had an impact for the Kangaroos while Majak Daw, clearly a crowd favourite, failed to do a whole lot and looked lost for much of the contest.
Unfortunately, the bad news to come out of this game was the news a Hawthorn supporter was thrown from the stadium when nearby fans complained that he had been racially abusing Daw. The man was supposedly attending the game with his young son.
“Unfortunately, there’s still idiots out there. If there’s any good to come out of it it was a Hawthorn supporter, but other Hawthorn supporters around him made it known to him it’s not on,” North coach Brad Scott said of what is now the third reported incident involving racial abuse hurled at Daw over the past year.
“Those Hawks supporters need to be applauded.
“It’s disappointing. Majak has been through a lot in his life so this is not going to worry him. He’s been through worse things than this, don’t worry.”
Hawthorn have won both of their NAB Challenge games, including last week’s 131-point demolition of Brisbane.
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Photo: Michael Dodge/Getty Images
