A week of WWinning

In another week of multiple matches, these Hawks continued on their wwinning ways, dominating the Giants and out-fighting the Demons to edge on step closer to a Top 2 finish.

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ROUNDS 8-9: GWS AND MELBOURNE

📝 Main recap:

With two more wins in the last two weeks over GWS by 37 points at home in Frankston and Melbourne by 6 points in Cairns, we are confidently charging towards finals on a seven-game winning streak.

Our fearless captain Emily Bates set both a new club record and a personal best of 34 disposals in the Round 8 game against GWS.

With Demons captain Kate Hore being a late out with a minor quad strain, we had a big chance to get the win over Melbourne at Cazalys Stadium and, despite not kicking a goal in the second half, we managed to hang on and get the four points. Rising star Mattea Breed soared to take a spectacular mark in the third quarter against Melbourne that was the highlight of the game.

After only winning three games in each of our first two seasons, we are currently sitting at 9-1 in our third and we will now finish the 2024 season unbeaten at Kinetic Stadium with wins over Carlton, Gold Coast, West Coast and GWS.

ROUND 8: HAWKS 9.7 (61) def GIANTS 3.6 (24)

Selfie duties on debut for Sophie Butterworth

🤩 Best on ground – Who else but Emily Bates

For the second week in a row following the game against West Coast, Emily Bates was our best on ground. She finished the game with a gigantic 34 disposals, 15 contested possessions, one goal, eight clearances, seven score involvements and seven tackles. She was influential in combating the Giants' strong start to the game and her third quarter goal helped abide the orange tsunami.

Bates doing Bates things.

👀 Things we like to see – Gilly makes magic

Competing strongly with Bates for the title of best player on the ground, Irish forward Aileen Gilroy had an amazing day with a game-high and equal career-high three goals.

After a first quarter goal from a free kick and a third quarter goal on the run, Gilroy’s best goal of the day was clearly her brilliant kick from the boundary early in the final quarter.

She has now moved up into place as our leading goal kicker for the season with 13 goals, just ahead of fellow Irish player Áine McDonagh with 12.

👀 Things we like to see – Baskaran rises to the occasion

After being dropped following her two-disposal performance against Adelaide in Round 3, forward Charlotte Baskaran made it back into the team to face GWS to replace the injured Greta Bodey.

Redemption for the Tiger Queen

Baskaran really rose to the occasion, kicking two goals including executing the clinching moment of a 24-second coast-to-coast goal at the end of the third quarter off a Gilroy assist.

👀 Things we like to see – Fleming’s star continues to rise

Jasmine Fleming continues to tear up the midfield with 20 disposals, one goal and five score involvements (only behind Bates and Gilroy with six each).

After kicking her first ever AFLW goal against Geelong in Round 5, Fleming has now kicked four goals for the season (including one against GWS and one against Melbourne). As key forwards like McDonagh get tagged, it is great to see that we have multiple different ways to impact the scoreboard.

👀 Things we like to see – Breaking our membership record

In what has been such a record-breaking season, it should come as no surprise that we have also broken our AFLW membership record with 5,864 members and counting in 2024.

😇 Debut watch – Sophie Butterworth

Forward Sophie Butterworth got the late call up to make her AFLW debut after Emily Everist was a last minute out due to illness.

Butterworth was drafted at pick 45 in the 2023 National Draft from the Dandenong Stingrays.

She finished the day with two goal assists, one to Gilroy in the third quarter and one to Fleming in the fourth.

ROUND 9: HAWKS 3.5 (23) def DEMONS 2.5 (17)

A very happy team at Hawthorn. The mighty fighting Hok.

🤩 Best on ground – Who else but Emily Bates Best on ground – Eliza West overcomes her old Demons

Our vice-captain and former premiership Demon Eliza West had a great game against her old side in Cairns, collecting a game-high 25 disposals and an equal game-high seven inside 50s. West continues to be a massive driving force behind the incredible improvement we have seen across the team this year.

👀 Things we like to see – Mattea soars high in Indigenous Road

Tiwi midfielder Mattea Breed had an extra special Indigenous Round game as she took a truly unbelievable mark over Georgia Gall in the third quarter. It should absolutely be a contender for Mark of the Year.

Drafted at pick number 4 in the 2023 National Draft, Breed is having a real breakout season. She has more than doubled her average disposal count from last season and has begun to have a real impact in our midfield.

🛠️ Room for improvement – Scoring pressure

Even though we were able to get the win in the end, we did not hit the scoreboard in a major way in the second half, only scoring 0.3 across the last two quarters. We lost some of the scoring creativity that was evident in the game against GWS. This is a big area for improvement if we want to challenge some of the long-standing successful teams in finals.

🤕 Injury watch

Casey Sherriff returned for the first time since injuring her ankle and leg against Collingwood in Round 2 to play her old side like West. She had a quiet game but hopefully will be able to make an impact for us in finals.

Bodey looks ready to swoop back into the team for the next game

It looks like Greta Bodey (toe) and Emily Everist (illness) will be back for Round 10. They both last played against West Coast in Round 7. Whereas Kristy Stratton (ankle) and Laura Stone (ankle) will continue to remain unavailable for selection.

🪜 Ladder check in

We are still sitting pretty in the top two with a double finals chance and a home final in Week 1. A win over Richmond next week will cement this. If we lose, we could potentially be caught by Brisbane if they beat St Kilda and we may drop down to third. Either way, this is another reminder to clear your calendar for an exciting November.

We currently lead the McClelland Trophy after Brisbane were upset by Geelong in Round 8, giving another important reason for us to secure a Round 10 win. Based on joint performance across both the AFL men’s and women’s seasons, the winner will claim a $1 million prize.

That McClelland Trophy will look sweet on the trophy cabinet at Dingley

🆙⏭️ What's up next

For our final home and away game of the season, we face fellow finals contenders Richmond at Punt Road Oval on Sunday afternoon (November 3, 3:05pm). They are coming off a draw with Essendon in their Dreamtime game up at Marrara Oval in Darwin in Round 9.

This will be our third time playing Richmond in as many seasons. We lost to the Tigers in both of our previous meetings: by 11 points last year at Cazalys Stadium in Cairns and by 35 points in 2022 (Season 7) at Punt Road Oval. This season will be different as we will go into the game as favourites.

Players to watch include reigning AFLW best and fairest winner midfielder Monique Conti and captain and two-time All Australian forward Katie Brennan.

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