Relentless Hawks embrace pressure in AFL finals stunner

Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell has hailed his side’s relentless pressure and toughness to ambush Fremantle and secure a home AFL preliminary final.

Faced with a hostile sellout crowd at Perth’s Optus Stadium, the Hawks showed no signs of intimidation as they smashed their way to a 32-point qualifying final victory built on ferocious tackling and contested work.

The visitors’ pressure rating was through the roof, forcing repeat turnovers and stripping the Dockers of any opportunity to maintain their undefeated record at home this season.

“We know it would take every minute of the game to be able to put them away because of how quickly they can score,” Mitchell said.

“We’d love to play like that all the time. You can’t always get it done. We feel like we’ve worked for a long time to play the best sides and build a game style that’s suited for this sort of game.

“You watch some of our games across the season and our pressure has fallen away and we’ve been a bit off.

“I thought tonight the things that mattered in the game that don’t hit the scoresheet, they’re the things we liked.”

Thursday night’s powerful victory started at the coalface but was franked in the backline with James Sicily, Josh Battle and Tom Barrass immense and Fremantle’s star-studded forwards failing to land a punch.

The extent of the domination was laid bare when All-Australian forward Josh Treacy registered his first kick in the dying minutes of the game.

“They all played fantastically well,” Mitchell said of his key defenders.

“They’re a very good forward line, very well-drilled. We had enough pressure up the field which gave them a fair bit of help. It’s not like they had a lot of silver service.

“They had to win their contests … we didn’t give them the looks they’re used to.”

Young forward Max Beattie personified the Hawks’ never-say-die attitude when he was run down by Karl Worner, only to then spring to his feet and force a turnover which led to a Dylan Moore goal.

The third-gamer only had two touches in his first taste of finals but his pressure rating was second only to Jack Ginnivan at halftime.

“When there’s an error, your response to the error is much more important, and that was a that was a great example of what you hope every player does every time,” Mitchell said.

“At halftime, you look at the stat sheet, and he hasn’t had a lot of the footy, and perhaps he’s had a couple of errors.

“But then I looked at the pressure ratings, and he was number two for us … that’s a big part of what he’s in the team for.”