Hawthorn will be hoping to continue the round of upsets to date and defeat Gold Coast at People First Stadium for the first time at the venue since 2014.
The Suns (2-2, 91%) will be hoping to flip their fortunes on Saturday night after dropping their past two games to the Giants and Bulldogs in games where they’ve conceded 117 and 115 points respectively.
The Hawks (0-4, 68.7%) pushed reigning premiers Collingwood to its limit, falling short by five points — a week after giving Geelong a scare.
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The match gets underway at 7:30pm AEST from People First Stadium.
There are no late changes for either side, with David Swallow and Henry Hustwaite the substitutes for the Suns and Hawks respectively.
Watch it live on Fox Footy (channel 503), streaming on Kayo or using Hubbl from 7:30pm AEST.
ROLLING MATCH UPDATES
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(Jai Newcombe’s) so critical to the midfield and how they do go about it as a side… he’s the target player that needs to be clean on exit,” Fox Footy analyst and former Western Bulldogs great Brad Johnson told the broadcast pre-game.
Academy gun Ethan Read opened the account for Gold Coast just 51 seconds into the match, given a free kick and converting nicely on a slight angle to draw first blood.
Malcolm Rosas Jnr followed suite from a much tighter angle three minutes later, slotting one from the right forward pocket with precision on his left boot.
The crafty Jack Ginnivan and gritty Finn Maginness missed gettable set shots in the first six minutes, with the latter identified as playing a tagging role on the Suns’ Sam Flanders.
“Finn Maginness playing an unusual defensive forward role on Flanders, we saw Flanders go to half-back last week to great effect, and obviously Hawthorn want to nullify his impact,” Channel Seven’s Campbell Brown highlighted boundary side in the first quarter.
“Finn Maginness has started well this game… he has been a standout early in this game,”” play-by-play caller Luke Darcy added minutes later.
Darcy’s comments were well-timed, with Maginness breaking Hawthorn’s drought in front of goal less than a minute later.
“This game’s being played at extraordinary speed,” Darcy added in the second part of the first term.
After a somewhat quiet start to the match, Ginnivan and his relationship with the umpires has again a talking point.
The Hawthorn small forward gave Suns key defender Mac Andrew a light push on the wing, before Andrew retailiated with a bump that smoked Ginnivan to the floor.
“We know when a player flops, and Jack Ginnivan didn’t flop – Andrew hit him far and square in the middle of the back and put him to ground, and that should’ve been a free.”
To the surprise of many in the Channel 7 commentary box, the bump didn’t result in a free kick the 21-year-old Hawthorn player’s way.
“That happened right in front of me, and that is a free kick every single day of the week to Jack Ginnivan – so the umpires are saying there’s no preferential treatment against him, that is absolutely incorrect,” exclaimed Brown.
Source Agencies
