Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell has hit out at an umpiring call that robbed forward Nick Watson of a half-time goal on a night the Marvel Stadium surface came under fire for being too slippery under a closed roof.
Mitchell said he was glad Watson’s overturned goal did not affect his side’s 52-point victory – 18.11 (119) to 9.13 (67) – but said the club would be going to the AFL looking for an explanation.
Watson booted a goal after the half-time siren from the right forward pocket, but the umpires ruled he had run off his line – disallowing the score.
“There’s no common sense about that,” Mitchell said. “I would hope that we get an answer from the AFL, I’m sure we will.”
Mitchell said the rule made sense when players were swinging into the centre of the ground to open up the angle, but not when a right footer was kicking from the right-side pocket.
“There is absolutely no reason that a player would go wider (on that side) to give themselves an advantage,” Mitchell said.
“The vision doesn’t look like he goes off the line much, but that’s the umpire’s call, and I can accept that, but the fact that you can go off the line towards the boundary, and it be called play on … there’s no common sense about that.
“Why would he run wider to give himself a harder shot and get called play on? It didn’t make a lot of sense.
“I’m glad it was in a game where individual tiny scores didn’t matter, but I hope that’s something they rectify.”
Watson spoke to Kayo Sports in the rooms after the game.
“Don’t get me started,” he said when asked about the incident.
“They’re pretty keen to get the whistle out.
“Actually, I won’t say anything about the umpires. I might get a fine.”
When asked how the Hawks had managed to force St Kilda into so many costly turnovers and hold them goalless in the first half, Mitchell pointed out that the conditions were slippery.
“I’m not sure why exactly … it was quite wet,” he said. “Seems funny that we played inside and it was wet, but even in the warm-up, it was quite slippery underfoot.”
Saints coach Ross Lyon had also noticed the wet conditions.
“Look, I just roll my eyes,” he said after the game. “But both teams had to play in it.”
When asked if the ground was wetter through the middle of the ground and drier on the wings, Lyon said, “I’m not sure. I didn’t dive into it. I knew it was wet, but.”
Lyon said he could not comment on whether the conditions had played any part in Sam Flanders suffering what appeared to be a season-ending achilles injury during the match.
Flanders had received a handball in midair but as he landed on his right foot pulled up almost immediately and crumpled to the ground. He later hobbled to the bench with help from the St Kilda trainers.
“I’ll leave that to the sports scientists and medicos,” Lyon said of the reason for Flanders’ injury.
“I couldn’t comment, to be honest. I think it’d be remiss of me, and wrong of me.
“I’m just really trying to stay in my lane, in lots of places.”
Lyon joked that the reason he was continually feeling the Marvel Stadium surface before the start of the match, while his players were warming up, was nothing to do with the state of the ground but was for “good luck”.
“And it didn’t work,” he added.
“To be honest, I think it’d be detracting from [how good the Hawks were], they played really well tonight, they were really clean, they were tough, and that’s the level [we need to get to].”
Lyon said the Saints were going too quick with “composed ball use” during the first half, considering the conditions.
Hawthorn kicked eight goals to none across the opening two quarters – four of them to the evergreen Jack Gunston, who leads the Coleman Medal tally at the age of 34.
But the Saints wrestled back some momentum after the long break by moving Jack Silvagni forward (three goals), Jack Sinclair into the midfield, Darcy Wilson to the wing, Brad Hill to half-back, and Callum Wilkie higher up the ground off the last line of defence.
At times in the first and second quarters, Gunston dragged Wilkie so deep into the Hawthorn attack they were standing behind the goal line.
“We’ll keep fighting, and we know we want to play more like the second half,” Lyon said.
“For our fans, we let you down, and that starts and stops with me and the team.”
The Hawks showed their dominance and versatility by being able to rest five-goal forward Gunston for the final term.
This allowed Blake Hardwick to go forward and kick four in the last quarter – his second four-goal haul in two weeks.
Hawthorn were also buoyed by the long-awaited return of gun midfielder Will Day.
“I think he played 30 seconds more than he was meant to, so we had a bit of a chat about that after the game,” Mitchell said.
“We were pretty diligent with making sure that he didn’t play too much footy, and pleased that he got through unscathed and did some good things.”
It was also an impressive night from the Hawthorn defence. Led by James Sicily (a game-high 33 disposals and 13 intercept possessions), Jarman Impey and Karl Amon, they kept St Kilda to under 10 goals for the match.
