Richmond's next huge obstacle in a year of isolation: Hulk HawkinsBy Jake Niall
The Age
September 11, 2020For Richmond, the hurdles have kept coming: injury and fatherhood-forced absences, the media's alleged denigration of Tom Lynch, dramas surrounding the Cotchins and, not least, two players landing in strife outside a strip club at 3.30am in Surfers Paradise.
On Friday night at Metricon Stadium, a quick Uber ride from the scene of the kebab kerfuffle, the Tigers face more conventional obstacles - the game's immovable object Tom Hawkins and the irresistible force of Geelong.
Hawkins has been the AFL's best key forward by a considerable margin this year. At 32, he's never performed better; twice in this reduced, low-scoring season his goal tallies have exceeded the opposition, as when be booted six goals to Port Adelaide's four and five goals to St Kilda's four.
This time, the task of grappling with Hulk Hawkins and his 198cm, 100-plus kilogram frame will fall to Noah Balta in his 25th game. Just as Geelong represents the sternest test of the Tigers, Hawkins will be a measure of Balta's progress as the replacement for Tomahawk's longstanding opponent, Alex Rance.
Assuming the Tigers play as selected, Balta will be backed up by Richmond's premier defender Dylan Grimes. If the Gold Coast weather is likewise as forecast, then Balta might also be assisted by a slippery ball, when he seeks to bring the ball to ground and then use his superior speed and athleticism against the AFL's only forward with Tony Lockett-like traits.
Stopping Hawkins from getting the ball when it's kicked to him has proven beyond most defenders and defences this year.
Geelong has kicked the footy to Hawkins one-out 65 times this season, the fourth most in the competition.
More ominous for Balta and indeed all the lighter-bodied full-backs who line up on Hawkins in the outcome of the 65 contests without a helping hand or fist: Hawkins won 29 of them, outmarking the defender 22 times and beating his man on the deck on a further seven occasions - his ground play for such a large man surprisingly effective; he leads the league in goals, goal assists for key forwards and is rated by Champion Data about 30 percent ahead of the next best big forward, Charlie Dixon.
When the Sherrin has been kicked to Hawkins within the forward 50m arc, the upshot has been as follows: he's marked it 14 out of 40 times, and been out-marked just twice. All told, Tomahawk has been out-marked only three times from those 65 contests.
In a time of isolation and restrictions of one only one other for company, Geelong has managed exactly that - the Cats have been expert in getting, not just Hawkins, but their superstar Patrick Dangerfield, plus Gary Rohan and others to be isolated, one-out, without the opposition's extra defender getting in the way.
It's a credit to Geelong's method that, in a congested game, they have managed to put Hawkins in dangerous positions and maximise his strengths, almost otherwise extinct in a game whose youngish key forwards - the King brothers, Jeremy Cameron, Matt Taberner - are rangy athletes.
"Tom is in really good form so if given isolation he is a pretty hard player to stop,'' said Geelong coach Chris Scott on Thursday.
"I think the credit should go to Tom, the way he has prepared himself and the form he is in so hopefully the team is helping him a little bit, hopefully the coaches are helping him a little bit but the majority of it is just the way he has prepared himself and the way he has committed to prioritising his strengths.''
If Hawkins' size and capacity to outbody opponents is a point of difference (only Dixon really plays similarly), the Tigers cannot simply rely on slowing the Geelong ball movement either, as teams typically strive to in these defensively-dominant times.
Geelong, as opposition clubs know, have more than one gear. They can play fast and chaotic, as Tigers do, or deliberate, picking holes with carefully-constructed leads to a forward.
Scott confirms that "moving it quick'' isn't Geelong's modus operandi. "It is not the way we play and we are not playing better because we are moving the ball really fast all of a sudden.''
Scott says the Cats will need to be "firing on all cylinders to beat Richmond'' and that Balta and Nathan Broad, another helper in defence, will be important.
"They depend on them and we depend on Tom so I think that is going to be a significant part of the game.''
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/richmond-s-next-huge-obstacle-in-a-year-of-isolation-hulk-hawkins-20200910-p55uig.html
