An AFL grand final is all about pressure.
There’s the pressure that comes with playing in front of almost 100,000 fans at the MCG.
There’s the pressure that comes with knowing a year’s worth of hard work comes down to four quarters.
Then there’s the pressure that both sides are able to create on the day.
Saturday was a very one-sided contest in that regard, and it showed on the scoreboard.
Sydney on-baller Josh Kennedy booted the game’s opening goal, but it was Hawks veteran Sam Mitchell who set the tone in the opening minute.
Mitchell flattened Gary Rohan, forcing the flame-haired speedster to leave the ground with a bloodied nose.
Mitchell, Luke Hodge, Jordan Lewis, Will Langford, Brian Lake, Paul Puopolo, David Hale, Liam Shiels and Jarryd Roughead proceeded to spearhead a ferocious and emphatic unravelling of Sydney’s free-flowing football.
It was pressure personified.
The Hawks hunted in packs, creating indecision and causing turnovers.
The reigning premiers tackled with intent, forcing Sydney’s besieged stars to earn every possession.
They crashed packs with reckless abandon for their safety, throwing their weight around in every bone-rattling contest.
It was at its most brutal in the first quarter, when the Hawks laid 22 tackles to Sydney’s seven.
It was a stark statistic, especially given the Hawks were so often first to the ball and had 19 inside-50s to the visitors’ seven.
Hawthorn won the final tackle count 62-57, but when the game was in the balance there was no doubt who was harder at the ball.
At any rate, statistics tell only half the story.
Hell, even words can’t do justice to arguably the most ferocious acts of the day.
Dan Hannebery was yet to plant both feet on the ground or take possession of the Sherrin at a first-quarter stoppage when he was rammed by Roughead.
“That’s worth five disposals and created a goal,” Matthew Lloyd remarked on radio station 3AW.
Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson has rarely seen eye to eye with Lloyd.
But you suspect the 46-year-old, a hardman in his playing career of 134 games, would have agreed in this instance.
Lance Franklin tried his best to turn the game on its head at various points, but was starved of the ball and denied quality service.
Sydney’s pace aces Rohan and Lewis Jetta couldn’t find any space to run, the latter needing a concussion test after being whacked by a Ben McEvoy spoil.
The Swans were smashed – in every sense of the word.
TENACIOUS TURNAROUND
* Sydney started the grand final as the competition’s best-tackling side – they had averaged 73 a game this season
* Hawthorn were 16th in the same statistic with 62.3 per match.
