The first game on Saturday for AFL Round 15 is between Hawthorn Hawks and Gold Coast Suns. The match is to be played at Aurora Stadium with the opening bounce set to commence at 1:45 PM local time with home team Hawthorn Hawks currently holding favouritism in the market. View our AFL live scores, odds and results for the game between Hawthorn Hawks and Gold Coast Suns.

Round: Round 15 , June 28, 2014 , 1:45 PM
Stadium: Aurora Stadium
Weather: 12° A few showers.

Preview:

The Hawks play the Suns on Saturday, 1.45PM at Aurora Stadium.  The Hawks should be able to win this one, with Hawthorn in great from as they look for five victories in a row.  The rising Suns certainly can’t be counted out, however, with the Gold Coast likely to be high on confidence after managing to beat Geelong last round for the first ever time.  The scalp of Hawthorn will be harder to come by though, with the Hawks 10-3 so far in 2014 and still holding on to 2nd ladder position.  While the Suns have never beaten Hawthorn in five attempts, this will be their best chance and stranger things have happened.

Teams:

HAWTHORN
B Ryan Schoenmakers, Brian Lake, Luke Hodge
HB Matthew Suckling, Matt Spangher, Grant Birchall
C Isaac Smith, Jordan Lewis, Bradley Hill
HF Paul Puopolo, Jack Gunston, Cyril Rioli
F Luke Breust, Jarryd Roughead, David Hale
FOLL Jonathon Ceglar, Shaun Burgoyne, Liam Shiels
I/C Angus Litherland, Taylor Duryea, Ben Stratton,Brad Sewell
EMG Ben Ross, Ben McEvoy, Jonathan Simpkin
IN Ben Stratton
OUT Ben Ross (Omitted)

GOLD COAST
B Kade Kolodjashnij, Steven May, Greg Broughton
HB Matt Shaw, Rory Thompson, Trent McKenzie
C Jarrod Harbrow, Gary Ablett, Michael Rischitelli
HF Jack Martin, Tom Lynch, Harley Bennell
F Charlie Dixon, Sam Day, Luke Russell
FOLL Zac Smith, Jaeger O’Meara, Dion Prestia
I/C Alex Sexton, David Swallow, Danny Stanley,Jesse Lonergan
EMG Matthew Warnock, Clay Cameron, Sean Lemmens
IN Jesse Lonergan
OUT Brandon Matera (Groin)

News:

Carlton skipper Marc Murphy says the Blues have removed the slim prospect of playing AFL finals from their thinking as they look to salvage some respect from the remaining nine games of their season.

Sitting 12th on the ladder with four wins from 13 matches, Carlton are still a mathematical chance of making the top eight, but Murphy signalled a return to basics as the Blues look to snap a run of four defeats against Collingwood on Sunday night.

“We’ve completely removed (finals) from our focus at the moment,” Murphy said at the annual Peter Mac Cup breakfast at the MCG on Thursday.

“We just want to play good team football and focus on the basics – normally when you focus on the process the results will come.

“As a club and as a playing group that’s all we’re focusing on at the moment.”

The Carlton skipper was a late withdrawal from the side that suffered an upset loss to GWS on Sunday with a hamstring strain, but he’s confident he will pass a fitness test on Friday and be cleared to return to the line-up to face the Magpies at the MCG.

“I haven’t done a lot this week – I’ve had a lot of treatment and a lot of massage – and tomorrow I’ll give it a test out, but I’m pretty confident I’ll be right for Sunday night,” he said.

“It was the first time in my career that I pulled out (just) before a game, so I hated sitting there in the stands and watching the boys.

“It was a really disappointing day for the club after a good couple of weeks when, without getting a win, we played some big clubs and had some good performances.

“We took a few steps forward, but then on Sunday afternoon it was a bit of a step backwards.”

Collingwood skipper Scott Pendlebury said his team wouldn’t take the wounded Blues lightly, pointing to their recent hard-fought losses against top-four hopefuls Hawthorn and Geelong.

“Even though they didn’t get the result they pushed those sides and probably should have won both games,” Pendlebury said.

“We’ve lost two on the trot and we certainly don’t want to lose three in a row so we know how important this Sunday night is.”

Despite losses to the Western Bulldogs and Hawthorn in the past fortnight, Pendlebury denied the Magpies were in a form slump and backed the team to rise to the occasion against their traditional rivals.