This result came a week after arguably the Demons’ finest victory of the season,against the Power in Adelaide, but Goodwin was left to rue a lack of intensity and urgency that he wants his club “to be built on”.
“We had enough opportunities but we probably didn’t play the way we wanted to play for long enough,” he said.
The “surreal” atmosphere of a closed stadium because of Melbourne’s lockdown hurt his side but Goodwin said there were no excuses.
“To be a really,really good club,you want to be consistent in the way you play,” he said.
Clayton Oliver and Christian Petracca were dominant through the midfield and enhanced their Brownlow Medal claims,while Jack Viney was typically tenacious at the contest.
Ben Brown,while providing just the one goal,worked well alongside Tom McDonald and Bayley Fritsch,the latter booting three goals.
However,the Demons let slip a 20-point lead in the second term and struggled to regain any momentum after the Hawks booted the final three goals leading into half-time
The Demons are now slated to face the Gold Coast Suns at TIO Stadium in the Northern Territory but that could yet change in what shapes asanother week of fixture drama.
Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson wanted his side to compete hard and tackle ferociously,and that’s just what the Hawks did,winning the latter count 81-58.
He said the Hawks’ ability to hinder the Demons’ intercept marks and run from half-back had been crucial.
“They have got some high-quality midfielders but,by and large over the course of the game,the pressure we were able to apply that Melbourne were unable to get that free-flow game going and chains through the middle of the ground which they like to play with,” Clarkson said.
“That gave us a chance to be right in the contest.”
Clarkson also praised his young “pups” up forward,including Mitch Lewis and Tyler Brockman,for finding a way to boot 12 goals.
“We are a young side,we are coming up against top-of-the-ladder sides,we gave them a three-or-four-goal head start … for us to get ourselves back into the contest and give ourselves a chance to win late in the game was a real credit to our boys,” he said.
Clarkson also acknowledged Tim O’Brien for the job he did on McDonald in a new role in defence.
“We tried him down back this week because we wanted Lewis to come back into the side. Lewis kicked a couple of goals and straightened us up a bit,” he said.
Loading
The Hawks were forced to make a late change,withdrawing Conor Nash as he had attended the Wallabies v France rugby match at AAMI Park on Tuesday,which was deemed a coronavirus exposure site by the Victorian Department of Health. While he had been tested and returned a negative result,Nash was a tier-one contact,so will need to quarantine for a fortnight under Victorian contact-tracing requirements.
Clarkson said Nash would have another test in the coming days and hoped he could return to the club as soon as possible.
“You just have to roll with the punches in this sort of environment,” Clarkson said.