Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell has hit back at the referee’s call that denied forward Nick Watson a half-time goal on a night when Marvel Stadium was accused of being too slippery under the closed roof.
Mitchell said he was glad Watson’s overturned goal did not affect his side’s 52-point win – 18.11 (119) to 9.13 (67) – but said the club would go to the AFL for an explanation.
Watson scored after the half-time whistle from the right front keeper, but the referees ruled he had run off his line – disallowing the goal.
“There’s no common sense about it,” Mitchell said. “I would hope we get a response from the AFL, I’m sure we will.”
Mitchell said the rule made sense when players were going into the middle of the ground to open the corner, but not when the bottom of the right foot was kicking from the right side pocket.
“There is absolutely no reason that a player would go further (to that end) to take advantage,” Mitchell said.
“The vision doesn’t look like he goes off the line that much, but that’s the referee’s call, and I can accept that, but the fact that you can go off the line towards the boundary, and be called to play … there’s no common sense about it.
“Why did he run more to give himself a bigger shot and get called for a play? It didn’t make much sense.
“I’m glad it was in a game where small individual points didn’t matter, but I hope that’s something they fix.”
Watson spoke to Kayo Sports in the rooms after the game.
“Don’t get me started,” he said when asked about the incident.
“They are very eager to blow the whistle.
“Actually, I won’t say anything about the referees. I might get a fine.”
When asked how the Hawks were able to force St Kilda into so many costly situations and keep them scoreless in the first half, Mitchell suggested it was a slippery slope.
“I’m not sure why exactly … it was raining,” he said. “It seems funny that we played inside and it was raining, but even when it was warm, it was slippery underfoot.”
Saints coach Ross Lyon had also noticed the wet conditions.
“Look, I just roll my eyes,” he said after the game. “But both teams had to play in it.”
When asked if the ground was wet through the middle of the ground and drier on the wings, Lyon said, “I’m not sure. I didn’t sink into it. I knew it was wet, but.”
Lyon said it could not comment on whether the situation played a part in Sam Flanders suffering what appeared to be a season-ending injury during the match.
Flanders had received a handball in the air but when it landed on his right foot he immediately picked himself up and crumpled to the ground. He later joined the bench with support from the St Kilda coaching staff.
“I’ll leave it up to the sports scientists and doctors,” Lyon said of the cause of Flanders’ injury.
“I couldn’t comment, to be honest. I think it would be wrong for me, wrong for me.
“I’m just trying to stay on track, in a lot of places.”
Lyon joked that the reason he always felt the Marvel Stadium before kick-off, when his players were warming up, had nothing to do with the pitch but “good luck”.
“And it didn’t work,” he added.
“Honestly, I think it’s going to understate (how good the Hawks were), they played really well tonight, they were really clean, they were tough, and that’s the level (we need to reach).”
Lyon said Saints were going too fast with “consolidated ball use” in the first half, given the conditions.
Hawthorn kicked eight goals to none in the opening two quarters – four of them to Jack Gunston, who leads the Coleman Medal tally at 34.
But the Saints mustered some momentum after the long break by moving forward Jack Silvagni (three goals), Jack Sinclair into midfield, Darcy Wilson to wing, Brad Hill to half-back, and Callum Wilkie rising higher from the defensive end.
At times in the first and second quarters, Gunston dragged Wilkie into the Hawthorn forward line and they were standing behind the goal line.
“We’re going to keep fighting, and we know we want to play more in the second half,” Lyon said.
“For our fans, we let them down, and that starts and ends with me and the team.”
The Hawks showed their dominance and versatility by being able to rest five-goal striker Gunston for the final term.
This allowed Blake Hardwick to go ahead and kick four in the final quarter – his second four-goal haul in two weeks.
Hawthorn were also delighted with the long-awaited return of attacking midfielder Will Day.
“I think he played 30 seconds more than he was supposed to, so we had a little chat about that after the game,” Mitchell said.
“We were very diligent in making sure he didn’t play too much of the leg, and we were happy that he came through unscathed and did some good things.”
It was also an impressive night from Hawthorn’s defence. Led by James Sicily (who scored 33 goals and 13 possessions), Jarman Impey and Karl Amon, they kept St Kilda under 10 goals in the match.
