Sam Mitchell agreed with a reporter<\/a> who suggested that Geelong\u2019s midfield dominance, highlighted by a rampaging Patrick Dangerfield, perfectly showcased Hawthorn\u2019s need to acquire Merrett.<\/p>\nMitchell also expressed that there is no time to rest on their laurels as Hawthorn is a club that prides itself on winning a premiership every decade, and they need to get to work to extend that streak into a seventh decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe game doesn\u2019t stand still for anyone,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we play exactly as well as we did this year, we probably won\u2019t make the eight next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got work to do, every club. Fifteen clubs now – finished. Everyone\u2019s getting to work on how to improve for next season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe start back at ground zero and we\u2019re gonna have plenty of work to do like every other club.\u201d<\/p>\n
“They were just a bit too good” | 11:42<\/p>\n
Away from the trade table, that work will focus largely on the centre bounce.<\/p>\n
Irishman Nash fought admirably with a team high seven clearances, bettered only by Dangerfield, with three of them coming following a centre bounce.<\/p>\n
But Newcombe, who was kept below his usually lofty standards by the nagging presence of tackling machine Tom Atkins, and Mabior Chol were the only other two Hawks to register a centre clearance.<\/p>\n
Lewis spelled out the extent of the Cats\u2019 mauling when the game restarted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey really went after what is probably the weakest line in this Hawthorn side,\u201d Lewis said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at pure stoppage numbers, 50 to 33, centre bounce 20 to 5, and that was where the game was won and lost.<\/p>\n
\u201cSam Mitchell referenced that in his press conference.<\/p>\n
\u201c72 points to 44 off that particular area.\u201d<\/p>\n
“Some of the best we’ve seen!” | 03:42<\/p>\n
It was not the first time during the finals series that clearances had caused headaches for Mitchell and his coaching staff.<\/p>\n
Despite a thrilling 19-point elimination final victory against the Giants in Sydney, the Hawks coughed up seven unanswered goals in quick succession either side of three quarter time off the back of losing their stronghold in the middle.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt highlighted Hawthorn\u2019s got an issue they need sort out in the off season, and I\u2019m sure Sam will,\u201d Brisbane Lions three-time premiership hero Jonathan Brown said on Fox Footy\u2019s post-match coverage.<\/p>\n
\u201c32 points in that third quarter from stoppage is a concern.<\/p>\n
\u201cSame thing happened a fortnight ago against GWS when Josh Kelly came on the field, 32 points as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t give up that number, can ya?<\/p>\n
\u201cThat centre bounce clearance number, that was the most by any team in a final in the history of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, a few problems there, but (Geelong) were just so powerful. Great to see.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For all the thrills of the new age Hawks, they were soundly beaten by Geelong\u2019s old fashioned midfield…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[104072,638,64,63,689,55,639,3237,13120,104071,104061,19061,104067,104068,13213,1119,10145,11288,17976,12102,19100,19052,14416,14402,647,104065,104062,104063,19105,673,104073,677,39209,24310,24302,104069,19095,41653,668,104070,12936,104060,85,670,104059,104066,23078,69078,12113,1140,660,104064,25581],"class_list":["post-155937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-active-teams","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-brisbane-lions","tag-centre-bounce","tag-centre-clearance","tag-clearance-number","tag-coaching-staff","tag-connor-nash","tag-elimination-final-victory","tag-finals-series","tag-football-club","tag-garry-lyon","tag-grand-final","tag-hawk-jordan-lewis","tag-jack-gunston","tag-jai-newcombe","tag-jonathan-brown","tag-josh-kelley","tag-mabior-chol","tag-melbourne","tag-midfield-battle","tag-midfield-brute-force","tag-midfield-dominance","tag-midfield-group","tag-new-south-wales","tag-night-preliminary-final","tag-oceania","tag-patrick-dangerfield","tag-point-loss","tag-post-match-coverage","tag-prelim-loss","tag-preliminary-final","tag-premiership-contender","tag-press-conference","tag-pure-stoppage-numbers","tag-sam-mitchell","tag-sam-mitchell-press","tag-sports","tag-sydney","tag-tackling-machine","tag-three-time-premiership-hero","tag-tom-atkins","tag-tom-barrass","tag-tom-stewart","tag-trade-table","tag-victoria","tag-weakest-line","tag-zach-merrett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}