HAWTHORN 2.4 5.5 7.7 14.9 (93) WESTERN BULLDOGS 0.2 4.5 10.8 13.12 (90)
Goals: Hawthorn: C Rioli 3, J Sicily 3, B McEvoy 2, J Gunston 2, L Breust 2, J Ceglar, R Schoenmakers. Western Bulldogs: L Dahlhaus 2, S Biggs 2, T McLean 2, C Daniel, J Roughead, J Stringer, M Bontempelli, M Suckling, M Wallis, T Boyd.
Best: Hawthorn: Stratton, Mitchell, Smith, Birchall, Rioli, Burgoyne, Gibson, McEvoy, Western Bulldogs: Dahlhaus, Daniel, Adams, Biggs, Murphy, McLean, Picken, Hunter.
Injuries: Western Bulldogs: R Murphy (knee).
Umpires: Chris Donlon, Ray Chamberlain, Brent Wallace.
Official Crowd: 46,808 at Etihad Stadium.
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Hawthorn hold their nerve to down Bulldogs
In an absorbing contest of major momentum swings, James Sicily’s three third-quarter goals prove the difference in a 14.9 (93) to 13.12 (90) win for the Hawks.
Western Bulldogs captain Bob Murphy suffered a season-ending knee injury in the final moments of an achingly tight loss to Hawthorn on Sunday.
Murphy suffered what the club believes is a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament which will require a knee reconstruction and cost him the rest of the season. Cruelly, it not only occurred in the last moments of a game that had until that moment had suggested there was much to be excited about for the Dogs this year.
"He is no good. Yeah, it's bad, the worst (ACL)," Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said.
"As you would expect it's shattering but we know what sort of person he is and character he is so he will bounce back but its sad news."
Beveridge said the news to Murphy was far harder for his players to stomach than the narrow loss to the reigning premiers.
"They are a tight-knit and close knit bunch and they will be hurting today not just because of the loss but they will be hurting for Bob," he said.
Beveridge accepted the Bulldogs would take confidence from the narrow defeat but that was of little consolation immediately after the match.
"It does not lessen our disappointment. We are right there," he said.
The Hawks won a pulsating game because they were leading when the music stopped: the lead changed six times in the last quarter alone. The Hawks found a way to be the side leading when it mattered.
The Bulldogs' disappointment at the loss will be assuaged by the knowledge they can now match it with the best to the last breath.
The Hawks booted the first five goals of the game and by midway through the second quarter the Dogs had not kicked a goal. Sam Mitchell was fussing about the ground, scything 50m kicks that skimmed the grass.
The Bulldogs looked like a man searching for his keys, going back over their tracks and being uncertain if they could move forward.
Then Luke Beveridge moved Caleb Daniel onto Sam Mitchell and it helped change the colour of the game. The smallest of Dogs took the biggest of bites.
The Bulldogs kicked the next five goals straight. Where they had been pushed off the ball now they could not be moved from it. By half-time they were almost on level terms, by three-quarter time they were heralding a changing of the guard, having booted six goals to two.
Astonishingly, the Dogs beat Hawthorn by 29 contested possessions in that term. That number across a game would be significant, within a quarter it beggared belief,
Daniel, Luke Dahlhaus, Shane Biggs and Toby McLean were instrumental in the change.
The Hawks looked beaten at three-quarter time but regathered through the run of Isaac Smith, Mitchell's ability to reinsert himself in the contest, and the composure of Shaun Burgoyne in important moments in the last quarter. Ben McEvoy took telling marks and then there was Cyril Rioli's daring.
Hawthorn's best, though, was arguably Ben Stratton, the man who had less of the ball than any but lost only one one-on-one contest for the day. Jake Stringer was always a threat in the Dogs defence but not one that ever ended up materialising until, cruelly for Stratton, what might have been the last goal of the game.
Stratton is one of the few defenders suited to Stringer for he is quick and nimble enough to close Stringer's space at ground level and tall enough not to be out-marked overhead. He also has the smarts not to be thrown by Stringer's rubber hipped moves.
He had the better of the Dog until the last contest when a free kick was conceded and with it a goal to put the dogs in front. That was until Sicily recovered for the Hawks at the other end … and then the music stopped.
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