Australian Football

Match Report

After a promising opening to the season, the Gold Coast Suns have been brought back to Earth with a thud as Hawthorn handed them a football lesson at Carrara on Saturday night. The Suns opened the match brightly with a goal to Jaeger O'Meara in the opening minutes of the match and they took it up to Hawthorn for much of the first term to trail 4.4 to 6.4 at the first break.

The Suns got their fair share of the ball in the second quarter but Hawthorn were far more efficient in their use of it, kicking five goals to two for the term to take a 33-point lead into half time. It was a similar story in the the third term, with the Suns bring the ball inside 50 metres 20 times to Hawthorn's nine but the Hawks' better ball use saw them kick five goals to one to lead by 58 points at the last change and put the result beyond doubt.

Hawthorn turned it into a procession in the last quarter, scoring seven goals to nil against the demoralised Suns to run out winners by a whopping 99 points. Despite the margin, Gold Coast was not disgraced and the Suns could take solace from the fine efforts from the ever-reliable Gary Ablett (35 possessions, six tackles), David Swallow (27 disposals and eight tackles) and Dion Prestia (27 touches, four marks). For the Hawks, the old brigade of Luke Hodge (32 disposals, nine marks) and Sam Mitchell (36 touches and six marks) were prominent, while Jack Gunston (five goals and 10 marks) was also a fine player.

The Suns have a chance to redeem themselves next Sunday at the MCG when they take on Melbourne while the unbeaten Hawthorn's next assignment is an Easter Monnady blockbuster against the also undefeated Geelong.

GOALS
Gold Coast: O’Meara, Hall, Shaw, Lynch, Ablett, Rischitelli, Swallow
Hawthorn: Gunston 5; Roughead 4; Rioli, Mitchell, Suckling, Breust 2; Hale, Smith, Shiels, Hill, Simpkin, Puopolo

BEST - SPORTAL.COM.AU
Gold Coast: Ablett, Swallow, Rischitelli
Hawthorn: Mitchell, Burgoyne, Gunston, Hodge, Roughead

BEST - AFL.COM.AU
Gold Coast: Ablett, Swallow, Rischitelli
Hawthorn: Gunston, Mitchell, Burgoyne, Hodge, Roughead

COACHES' COMMENTS
Guy McKenna (GCo): [It was a lesson] in polish and contested footy. In the second quarter we went in nine times, they went in 22 times; they scored five goals, we scored a goal. In the third quarter we turned that around, which is a great effort by the lads. We went in 20 times to their nine but unfortunately the scoreboard stayed the same. We scored one goal, they scored five so, clearly their polish was a lot better than ours.

Alastair Clarkson (Haw): We didn't anticipate we were going to win by the margin that we did. Full credit to our boys. They're tough conditions to play in up here, so we were really pleased with our effort. The game was hot and pretty open and high scoring early but for us to restrict them to three goals after quarter time was a pretty comprehensive effort right across the ground.

INJURIES
Gold Coast: Nil
Hawthorn: Spangher (ankle)

SUBSTITUTES
Gold Coast: Jack Hutchins on for Luke Russell in the third quarter.
Hawthorn: Jonathan Simpkin on for Matt Spangher in the third quarter.

UMPIRES: Fisher, Stevic and Harris

TELEVISION BROADCAST: Seven Network

COMMENTATORS: Brian Taylor, Luke Darcy, Matthew Richardson, Cameron Ling