![\"Andrew](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ddb439a35602544b713c38672523d9b13febc6cda49bcf2dcf93af2f2438157f.png\")
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March 20, 2026 \u2014 1:45am<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n Save this article for later<\/p>\n Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n Got it<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Sam Mitchell\u2019s Hollywood Hawks have a blue-collar edge.<\/p>\n This Hawthorn team arrived on the scene amid much glitz and glamour but under the MCG\u2019s Thursday night lights they rolled their sleeves up to disarm Sydney\u2019s run-and-gun, box-office game and win by 17 points \u2013 14.15 (99) to 13.4 (82).<\/p>\n The most telling difference came at opposite ends of the ground, the product of the Hawks\u2019 appetite for the contest when the ball was in between these zones.<\/p>\n Jack Gunston, Mabior Chol and Mitch Lewis, whose combined pay packet only just matches Charlie Curnow\u2019s<\/a>, all played key roles, while the Swans\u2019 high-priced prized recruit<\/a> had zero impact after two goals in the first term. He touched the ball just once in the second half.<\/p>\n Gunston, a central figure in the Hawthorn teams that broke Sydney hearts in the 2010s, exacted more pain on a new breed of Swans. His fourth goal was the sealer to a win that seemed unlikely early in the third quarter when the Swans broke away to a 20-point lead.<\/p>\n Editor’s pick This was a good night for Mitchell and his coaching team. Their job was undoubtedly made easier by the absence of Isaac Heeney and Errol Gulden<\/a>, but it\u2019s questionable what impact the Swans superstars would have had in the arm wrestle Mitchell created.<\/p>\n After a frenetic first term when 11 goals were scored, the match changed when he threw an extra player behind the ball.<\/p>\n The slower ball movement better suited the Hawks, who had more ways to score because of their dominance of the contested ball. A contested possession count that was in Sydney\u2019s favour by two at half-time blew out to 26 the other way by game\u2019s end, which Swans coach Dean Cox said was a major factor in his team\u2019s defeat.<\/p>\n Through inaccuracy, Hawthorn could not convert their repeat entries inside 50 in the second term but cashed in late as the Swans tired coming off a five-day break.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cIf you looked at our GWS game and the Sydney game, and you looked at just intensity around the ball and the speed of the bodies and the pressure that we were able to put on tonight \u2026 the difference between those two games was quite significant in how we behaved,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd if we can sustain the type of pressure and intensity that we got tonight, we\u2019ll be a really hard side to beat. But if we drop off, we don\u2019t have to look too far in our rearview mirror to realise how vulnerable we can be.\u201d<\/p>\n The spare player behind the ball was a bold ploy by Mitchell as it risked allowing the Swans to create an overlap from defence through their extra player, usually the damaging Nick Blakey or Callum Mills.<\/p>\n But the pressure exerted by small forwards Connor Macdonald and Nick Watson, and the unlikely Chol, forced the Swans into long, high balls to an outnumbered Curnow, who was unable to bring the ball to ground often enough to allow his team to force a stoppage on the wing.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was an intensity about the whole game right to the last five seconds,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cMy son actually texted me, and he said, \u2018I wasn\u2019t sure we\u2019d won until eight seconds to go\u2019, and it felt like that in the game.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so for our players to put together 120 minutes of really high, intense footy, I thought that was a good sign.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The Hawks\u2019 control of the contested ball left the Swans with a narrow path to victory \u2013 running the ball at high speed from defence.<\/p>\n Related Article Their dependence on speed has brought dizzying highs this season. Against Carlton, they slammed 18 goals in a half. Last week, they piled on seven in the first term. Here, six came in opening 22 minutes and another four in eight minutes in the third quarter \u2013 but this style is difficult to sustain, particularly against high-quality opposition.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t want to be so reliant on one method to score, and that\u2019s you can\u2019t do that from your back half,\u201d Cox said.<\/p>\n Curnow was a handful for Josh Battle in the first quarter when the game was open and he was on the move, but he was impotent when locked in a wrestle with the bigger Tom Barrass.<\/p>\n Though he was expected to thrive with the silky-skilled Swans, Curnow\u2019s return of five goals from his first three games is more in line with his output from his unhappy and injury-hit final year at Carlton than that of his back-to-back Coleman Medal campaigns.<\/p>\n His ineffectiveness after quarter-time was a repeat of his previous game at this venue last July when he was also smothered by the Hawks\u2019 key backs. With a full pre-season under his belt, Curnow\u2019s only alibi is his unfamiliarity with a new system, though Cox noted he was unable to halve aerial contests as he had in the first two games.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ability for Charlie to perform consistently, he\u2019s still working his way through at our football club,\u201d Cox said.<\/p>\n \u201cOne thing we try and say is, at all times, compete as hard as you possibly can, and try and read the cues up the ground when we are bringing the ball through.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s some inconsistencies throughout that at times, and it\u2019ll be a work in progress. We\u2019re going to put time into [it].\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"Dylan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773936791_246_369b3b7b08a8b98a2dd851650d6713f6c75fda81.jpeg\")
Dylan Moore is embraced by coach Sam Mitchell after overcoming a tumultuous period off the field to shine on it.AFL Photos<\/p>\n![\"Collingwood](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773936791_121_dea90ceab3a6801f1bcdb5b99933ef4582f05992.jpeg\")
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