Saturday’s second AFL Round 8 match is between Hawthorn Hawks and Greater Western Sydney Giants with the game to be played at Aurora Stadium. The opening bounce is set to commence at 2:10pm local time with home team Hawthorn Hawks currently holding favouritism. View our AFL live scores, odds and results for the game between Hawthorn Hawks and Greater Western Sydney Giants.
WHERE AND WHEN: Aurora Stadium, Saturday May 18, 2:10pm
Preview:
Hawthorn take on GWS at Aurora Stadium, 2.10pm on Saturday. I think it’s fair to say this wont be the closest game of the round, with an ugly GWS scoreline a definite possibility. Adelaide managed to defeat the Giants by a massive 135 points, so anything is possible with an in-form Hawks team and a Giants side with less confidence as the season progresses.
Teams:
Hawthorn Hawks:
B: Taylor Duryea, Brian Lake, Luke Hodge
HB: Shaun Burgoyne, Ben Stratton, Grant Birchall
C: Isaac Smith, Sam Mitchell, Bradley Hill
HF: Michael Osborne, Lance Franklin, Liam Shiels
F: David Hale, Jarryd Roughead, Luke Breust
Foll: Max Bailey, Brad Sewell, Jordan Lewis
Int: Matt Spangher, Jonathan Simpkin, Jack Gunston, Paul Puopolo
Emerg: Cheney, Guerra, Grimley
In: Spangher
Out: Gibson
Greater Western Sydney Giants:
B: Stephen Gilham, Joshua Bruce, Aidan Corr
HB: Adam Kennedy, Tim Mohr, Toby Greene
C: Lachie Whitfield, Callan Ward, Mark Whiley
HF: Tomas Bugg, Adam Tomlinson, Rhys Palmer
F: Taylor Adams, Jeremy Cameron, Devon Smith
Foll: Jonathan Giles, Tom Scully, Stephen Coniglio
Int: Dean Brogan, Anthony Miles, Tim Golds, Dylan Shiel
Emerg: Curtly Hampton, Kurt Aylett, Samuel Frost
In: Miles, Bugg, Golds, Whiley
Out: Reid, Treloar, Townsend, Williams
Hawks not targeting big AFL win over GWS
Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson has bristled at suggestions his in-form AFL club will be setting themselves to win by a big margin over Greater Western Sydney in Launceston on Saturday.
The Hawks are on a six-match winning streak, all against finalists from last year, including a comfortable 37-point victory over reigning premiers Sydney last round.
That suggests they should make very easy work of the winless Giants, who haven’t gone closer than a five-goal margin against any opponent this season.
But Clarkson said the Hawks would treat the Giants the same as their previous opponents.
He angrily dismissed a question about whether Hawthorn would set themselves a winning margin target.
“You’re asking some foolish questions and I don’t even want to respond to it,” he told a reporter at Melbourne Airport on Friday.
He admitted it would be a struggle to attract a big crowd.
“It’s a bit tougher when you play sides that haven’t got history in the competition,” Clarkson said.
Key defender Josh Gibson will miss the match with an ankle injury, opening the way for former Sydney backman Matt Spangher to make his Hawks debut.
Clarkson confirmed Gibson sustained the injury in an incident involving Swans star Adam Goodes, for which Goodes was cleared of sliding by the match review panel.
The incident prompted Hawks great Dermott Brereton to accuse Goodes of having a penchant of going legs-first into contests rather than putting his head and body over the ball.
Clarkson said the injury wasn’t severe.
“We’ll just make sure he gets it right this week and hopefully gets back into it next week,” he said.
Clarkson said forward Jarryd Roughead could spend more time as a midfielder, a tactic used to great effect against the Swans, when he frequently lined up at centre bounces and combined 27 disposals with four goals.
The Hawks coach said that tactic had been largely about countering Sydney’s big-bodied midfielders.
“Whether we do it on a consistent basis, we’ll just have to wait and see,” he said.
“But it worked okay for us last week so we’ll continue to explore it.”
