Hawthorn fought back from a poor start to take a 7.8 (50) to 7.4 (46) lead over Geelong at halftime of Friday night’s AFL preliminary final at the MCG.
The Hawks entered the match hot favourites, having had last weekend off after thrashing Sydney in their qualifying final, and having regained star forwards Lance Franklin and Cyril Rioli for Friday’s match.
The Cats had played patchy football previously in the finals and were missing Paul Chapman to suspension and Corey Enright to injury.
But despite the Hawks winning plenty of the ball in the first quarter, they looked a nervous team and trailed the Cats 3.5 to 4.0 at the first change.
David Hale, Jack Gunston and Jordan Lewis all missed set shots from close range during the opening quarter.
The Cats seized all of their chances.
Steve Johnson kicked his side’s first goal, helped by a 50m penalty, then added another 70 seconds later after Josh Gibson gave up the ball with an ill-directed short kick in defence.
Steve Motlop kicked a beauty on the run using the outside of his boot.
Teammate Allen Christensen topped that late in the term, with a goal from outside 50m, for which the umpires needed a video review to determine it wasn’t touched.
That put the Cats three points up before two late missed shots to the Hawks cut the gap to one, Hawthorn sustaining another blow late in the quarter when Franklin went to the rooms injured.
He reappeared early in the second term with strapping around his right elbow.
But the Cats dominated the early stages of the second quarter, regularly winning the ball forward, then applying strong pressure to stop the Hawks gaining their typical drive from defence.
Geelong kicked three of the first four goals of the quarter to push 17 points clear.
The first of those was a brilliant snap from Johnson – his third goal.
Hawthorn regained the midfield ascendancy late in the half and edged into the lead, through two majors to Gunston, either side of a Shaun Burgoyne goal.
But their nerves were still on show, with Luke Breust and Jarryd Roughead both missing very gettable set shots in the dying minutes of the half.
