Full match coverage and stats<\/a><\/p>\nHawthorn nabbed the opening goal of the game through Will Day before the Kangaroos got four straight for a 26-9 lead at the first break.<\/p>\n
Kangaroos skipper Nick Larkey, who has struggled for accuracy in recent times, produced a shocking first shot but nailed his second from off-centre, before teammate Zac Banch squeezed one through from the goalsquare in the last minute of the first quarter to give his side a boost.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hawthorn came to life early in the second with Watson kicking three goals in a row, including two in 60 seconds.<\/p>\n
The lead then changed hands multiple times before a behind after the half-time buzzer to Chol levelled the scores at 46-46.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Watson fired again with two goals early in the third before a major to Chol broke the run of tit-for-tat scores as Hawthorn threatened to pull away.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the Kangaroos rallied and Larkey’s second gave his side a 69-68 lead heading into the final quarter.<\/p>\n
Comben swaps the skies for the seas
North defender Charlie Comben took the scenic route to the Apple Isle, embarking on a 14-hour journey aboard the Spirit of Tasmania to reach Saturday’s clash. Comben was sent to hospital last weekend after coughing up blood following a heavy collision against St Kilda but was cleared to play this week. But as a precaution, doctors advised the 25-year-old against flying in the short term so instead, Comben boarded the ferry in Geelong, crossed Bass Strait to Devonport and completed the final leg with a one-hour drive to Launceston to link up with his teammates ahead of the game.<\/p>\n
HAWTHORN\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a01.3\u00a0 \u00a06.10\u00a0 \u00a09.14\u00a0 \u00a014.15 (99)
NORTH MELBOURNE\u00a0 \u00a04.2\u00a0 \u00a07.4\u00a0 \u00a010.9\u00a0 \u00a012.11 (83)<\/p>\n
GOALS
Hawthorn:\u00a0Watson 5, Gunston 2, Chol 2, Day, Ward, Battle, Impey, Morrison
North Melbourne:\u00a0Trembath 3, Larkey 2, Curtis 2, Sheezel 2, Banch, McKercher, Stephens<\/p>\n
BEST
Hawthorn:\u00a0Newcombe, Impey, Watson, Mackenzie, Ward, Chol
North Melbourne:\u00a0Sheezel, Parker, Trembath, Davies-Uniacke, Larkey, Daniel<\/p>\n
INJURIES
Hawthorn:\u00a0Nil
North Melbourne:\u00a0Nil<\/p>\n
Crowd: TBC at UTAS Stadium<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hawthorn has overrun a plucky North Melbourne, winning by 16 points at University of Tasmania Stadium on Saturday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":837395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-837394","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-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837394","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=837394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}