59m agoSat 7 Mar 2026 at 5:02amABC Saturday scoreboard<\/p>\n
2m agoSat 7 Mar 2026 at 5:59am<\/p>\n
How high (scoring) can they go?<\/p>\n
G\u2019day Andrew. Be one hell of a final score if this keeps up. 83 points per quarter can\u2019t be sustainable can it ?<\/p>\n
– Phillip<\/p>\n
Phillip,<\/p>\n
I don’t think they can keep this going for four quarters at this pace – they’ll be knackered.<\/p>\n
Also, the chances of a storm or rain arriving is high, and that will put a stop to their gallop, so to speak.<\/p>\n
Let’s just enjoy the scoring while we have it, eh?<\/p>\n
3m agoSat 7 Mar 2026 at 5:57am<\/p>\n
Quarter time stats<\/p>\n
Inside 50s: 22-11 GWS<\/p>\n
Clearances: 15-10 GWS<\/p>\n
Centre Clearances: 9-3 GWS<\/p>\n
Contested Possessions: 42-30 GWS<\/p>\n
Uncontested Possessions: 48-46 GWS<\/p>\n
Marks Inside 50: 4-1 GWS<\/p>\n
That centre clearance stat is the danger sign for Hawthorn.<\/p>\n
They cannot allow Kieren Briggs and his surrounding cast in the midfield to grab the ball and spread out of the middle so often, or this game will get out of hand.<\/p>\n
7m agoSat 7 Mar 2026 at 5:53amQT: GWS leads Hawthorn by 19, 8.3 (51) to 5.2 (32)![\"Jake](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/lcimg-e4aa2165-e66f-45c6-b1aa-ee77119a1626.jpeg\")
Jake Stringer has provided a great combo up forward for GWS with Jesse Hogan (Getty Images\/AFL Photos)<\/p>\n
There were concerns about GWS due to their injury list and general vibe in preseason.<\/p>\n
But that was a definitive answer from the Giants. They kicked eight goals to five and looked absolutely lethal every time they went forward.<\/p>\n
The combination of Jesse Hogan and Jake Stringer is causing all sorts of problems, and their speedy fleet of small forwards is providing brilliant delivery.<\/p>\n
The Hawks haven’t been terrible but they need to find some way of stifling the Giants in the centre or they are going to be cut to ribbons here.<\/p>\n
14m agoSat 7 Mar 2026 at 5:46am<\/p>\n
Good skills as Hogan kicks a goal for GWS<\/p>\n
My typing fingers are struggling a bit here, as the play is end to end and almost every move seems to end in a goal at the minute.<\/p>\n
This time it’s the Giants getting the ball to the edge of 50, a long ball (bit hit and hope) but it falls for Jesse Hogan, who manages to keep it in and tiptoes along the line next to the post before kicking the team’s seventh.<\/p>\n
It has to go to a score review, but Hogan did manage to keep it in, so the goal stands.<\/p>\n
GWS leads by 17 in time on, with four-and-a-half to go.<\/p>\n
17m agoSat 7 Mar 2026 at 5:44am<\/p>\n
Hawks go back-to-back<\/p>\n
This game is being played at a flat-out pace, in this humidity players are going to be drained.<\/p>\n
The Hawks have lifted again, they kick to the edge of 50, the ball rebounds but they send it across the arc and it falls to Jack Gunston and he snaps another!<\/p>\n
19m agoSat 7 Mar 2026 at 5:42am<\/p>\n
The Wizard answers for Hawthorn<\/p>\n
The Hawks have been caught on the hop here, and as we said they needed to do something.<\/p>\n
The first answer came from a familiar source, with Nick “The Wizard” Watson.<\/p>\n
The Hawks went forward, and with the ball bouncing around, Watson burst on to it, regathered and snapped a right foot shot round his body on the run to give Hawthorn their third major.\u00a0<\/p>\n
22m agoSat 7 Mar 2026 at 5:38am<\/p>\n
Giants are dominating!<\/p>\n
The Giants forward line is looking dangerous right now, they went to a contest and Jesse Hogan gathered and handballed to Jesse Stringer, who snapped over his shoulder to get the Giants’ fifth.<\/p>\n
And then straight from the centre, GWS went long and this time Hogan managed to take a very contested grab at the second or third attempt.<\/p>\n
He kicked it – it’s five in arow, the home side leads by 24 points.<\/p>\n
Hawthorn needs to do something here.\u00a0<\/p>\n
25m agoSat 7 Mar 2026 at 5:36am<\/p>\n
Three in a row for the Giants<\/p>\n
What is happening? Suddenly the Giants are getting cracking at stoppage, and they are creating chances.<\/p>\n
This time they break down the right, kick to a contest and Callum Brown gets the free for an arm over the shoulder.<\/p>\n
He goes back and drills it!<\/p>\n
The Giants are on a roll here.<\/p>\n
27m agoSat 7 Mar 2026 at 5:33am<\/p>\n
Another quick one for GWS<\/p>\n
It’s like the old London buses analogy.<\/p>\n
GWS was struggling to make an impact up forward, but after Gruzewski’s goal, the Giants went forward and Jake Riccardi ended up with his second of the game.<\/p>\n
That’s two in two minutes, and the home side hit the front.<\/p>\n
29m agoSat 7 Mar 2026 at 5:32am<\/p>\n
Gruzewski puts the Giants level<\/p>\n
It’s been a bit scrappy so far, but the Giants have managed an opportunity there.<\/p>\n
They forced it forward, a quick kick – almost a chaos ball – and Max Gruzewski darted forward to take the mark.<\/p>\n
He went back and kicked the goal, and scores are level!.<\/p>\n
31m agoSat 7 Mar 2026 at 5:30am<\/p>\n
Big collision for the Hawks<\/p>\n
That was a moment there!<\/p>\n
The ball was coming towards the Hawks half-back line, and Tom Barrass and Josh Battle went for it and collided.<\/p>\n
I think you could hear the impact in the Sydney CBD!<\/p>\n
Everyone was watching carefully, but both men picked themselves up. Thank goodness.<\/p>\n
33m agoSat 7 Mar 2026 at 5:27am<\/p>\n
The Prime Minister is in attendance<\/p>\n
The cameras are panning the crowd, and they stop on Australia’s Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, sitting with a Hawks scarf on.<\/p>\n
A chorus of boos ensues at the ground – not sure if that is a political statement or more having a go at his choice of team.<\/p>\n
35m agoSat 7 Mar 2026 at 5:25am<\/p>\n
Giants caught at the back<\/p>\n
It’s a funny old start here at Sydney Showground.<\/p>\n
There is plenty of anticipation, but also skill errors and the odd bit of lazy play.<\/p>\n
A free to James Sicily on the wing, he looks up and kicks long to the hotspot, where Lloyd Meek was waiting. he planted himself and took the grab – poor work by the Giants’ defence.<\/p>\n
Meek kicked the goal, and the Hawks hit the front!<\/p>\n
39m agoSat 7 Mar 2026 at 5:22am<\/p>\n
Hawks hit back quickly<\/p>\n
Both sides are trying to burst quickly from centre bounces.<\/p>\n
The Hawks went down the left wing, with Jack Gunston setting in train a chain of handballs that led to Jack Ginnivan in the pocket.<\/p>\n
And Ginnivan was not slow to show what he could do, with a lovely snap for a goal.<\/p>\n
Scores are level after five minutes or so.<\/p>\n
42m agoSat 7 Mar 2026 at 5:19am<\/p>\n
Giants get the opening score<\/p>\n
It was on from the start, with a free kick to GWS. Jesse Hogan kicked to the pocket and Jake Stringer earned a free.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for the Giants he missed, but within the two-minute mark the home side went downfield before a 50-metre penalty set up a goal to Jake Riccardi.<\/p>\n
GWS up by 7.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
44m agoSat 7 Mar 2026 at 5:16amWe are underway for GWS – Hawthorn<\/p>\n
The crowd cheers as play gets underway.<\/p>\n
It’s dry for now. Let’s see if someone can take advantage before the conditions change.<\/p>\n
47m agoSat 7 Mar 2026 at 5:13am<\/p>\n
Recent results between GWS and HawthornEF, 2025: Hawthorn by 19 (Sydney Showground)R4, 2025: Hawthorn by 12 (Launceston)R22, 2024: GWS by 2 (Manuka Oval)R14, 2024: Hawthorn by 6 (Launceston)R17, 2023: GWS by 13 (Sydney Showground)R5, 2023: GWS by 2 (Norwood Oval)<\/p>\n
Recent history between these two sides suggests a close game in the offing, with four of the last six games decided by two goals or less.<\/p>\n
The Giants will have a point to prove after last year’s elimination final, where the Hawks came to today’s venue and beat GWS in front of their fans.<\/p>\n
Having said that, two of the Hawks’ three wins in the last six games came at York Park in Launceston, so the Giants have more of a shot playing at their home ground.<\/p>\n
49m agoSat 7 Mar 2026 at 5:11am<\/p>\n
Big changes for the Hawks<\/p>\n
In contrast to the Giants, Hawthorn doesn’t have any well-known incomings, as the Hawks focused very much on the draft.<\/p>\n
They took mobile forward\/ruck Cameron Nairn, strong-marking forward Aidan Schubert, midfielder Jack Dalton and wing\/half-back Matt LeRay.<\/p>\n
There were a fair bit of outgoings at Hawthorn, however, with the retirement of club great Luke Breust, the delistings of Sam Frost and Seamus Mitchell, and the trades of Jai Serong to Sydney, Changkuoth Jiath to Melbourne and James Worpel to Geelong.<\/p>\n
51m agoSat 7 Mar 2026 at 5:10am<\/p>\n
Will the Phoenix rise for GWS?<\/p>\n
The Giants have a debutant today in Phoenix Gothard.<\/p>\n
Another of the Giants small forward contingent, Gothard was drafted in 2023, but is yet to play a game due to repeated injury issues.<\/p>\n
Let’s hope for his and GWS’ sake he has a great, injury-free start to his AFL career today.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"59m agoSat 7 Mar 2026 at 5:02amABC Saturday scoreboard 2m agoSat 7 Mar 2026 at 5:59am How high…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,4026,5126,16118,4127,6462,33064,588,85],"class_list":["post-524075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-bulldogs","tag-giants","tag-hawks","tag-lions","tag-live-updates","tag-opening-round","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524075","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=524075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Andrew](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/lcimg-301479af-2cf3-4d5d-ad09-94c4ed0c1bf4.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n