Seventeen years of AFL in Launceston hit an all-time low as just 9007 supporters watched Hawthorn beat a dreadful Gold Coast Suns team.
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More than 1000 fewer than the previous lowest crowd of 10,121 for the same two teams in 2016 and on the back of just 7194 for North Melbourne against Greater Western Sydney at Bellerive last month, the figure must sound alarm bells that Tasmanians are losing interest in AFL matches in their state.
On a perfect day for footy, the only thing uglier than the attendance was the goal-kicking as both teams demonstrated majestic inaccuracy with Hawthorn marginally less bad and winning 13.18 (96) to 5.13 (43).
The Suns addressed their trend of four consecutive goalless final quarters but did so at the expense of the second and third, managing to go without a major from the 16th minute of the first term to the 15th of the last.
Stuart Dew’s men finished with just three goal-kickers and although it was the poorest goal tally in the club’s history, it was not enough to eclipse their lowest score of 6.4 (40) also recorded in Launceston in 2015.
A week after blowing a six-goal lead against St Kilda, the side ranked last in the comp for disposals, goals and marks inside 50 couldn’t even reach six goals.
It was not the sort of spectacle to make the missing masses regret their decision-making.
While the Hawks could be similarly wasteful with their set shots – some reaching comical proportions – the eight straight majors they managed in the three-quarters of the match between the Suns’ third and fourth goals easily decided the contest.
Blake Hardwick and Ben Stratton may be sporting splendid mullets, but this was a long way from the Hawks’ golden days of the ’80s.
They finished with 10 goal-kickers, the pick of which was Jack Gunston who managed two of his three as the Hawks galloped home.
With their academy product Jacob Dawson making his debut, Suns seized control in the opening term through their twin towers of Tom Lynch and Peter Wright.
A goal after the siren from Gunston flattered the hosts and sparked them into life.
And when Josh Schoenfeld, Lynch and Callum Ah Chee all missed simple chances within as many minutes, Paul Puopolo made them pay before former Sun Jaeger O’Meara rubbed salt in the wounds.
In his 100th game, Tom Mitchell had to settle for second most disposals, finishing two behind Liam Shiels’ tally of 33 as none of the Suns could make it into the 30s.
And as the behinds began to rack up, it was clear that it wasn’t just the expectant wives of Puopolo and Stratton who weren’t going to deliver.
Coaches’ reaction
Both coaches were almost apologetic in their summaries of an error-strewn contest which did for Australian football what a winter solstice swim does for a gentleman’s ego.
A week after sharing the tenth anniversary celebrations of Hawthorn’s 2008 flag, Alastair Clarkson and his former assistant Stuart Dew found themselves on opposing sides.
And neither was suggesting what they produced was anywhere near premiership quality.
“It was hardly a highly entertaining game in terms of the quality of the footy,” Clarkson said.
“We missed three or four shots within 30 metres of goal dead in front and Dewy will bemoan the fact that they were the same – they missed shots that I thought were going to be sodas.
“Both sides kicked poorly and that didn’t add to the spectacle unfortunately because some of the work that either side did to get it into the hands of the guys to kick goals was pretty good.
“But the conversion of both sides from set shots was well below what we would expect at this level.
“You would have seen from the quality of the game today that we made some errors, didn’t finish some of our work and gave them some easy opportunities.”
Clarkson suggested there was nothing wrong with Shaun Burgoyne, who was withdrawn towards the end, other than general soreness.
He admitted Gold Coast was the better team in the opening term and his side has a long way to go to be challenging the best in the competition.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’re under no illusions that we need to improve in the second half of the year and the sides above us are probably playing a better brand of footy than us at the present time.
“But we feel like there’s some blue sky there in terms of the way that we play and some improvement in our players and if we can get that we give ourselves a chance.”
Dew was equally blunt in the assessment of the quality, suggesting the logistics of UTAS Stadium may have played a part.
“It is a bit of a tricky ground. You get lulled into a false sense of security in certain parts of the ground. Once that ball peaks over the stand it can get carried away. Guys missed shots they’d normally kick – we’ll call it all square on the poor goal-kicking,” he said.
“When you watch the game back, our boys had a crack but were beaten by outside class in the end.
“A fair few fundamentals – they kept their feet better than us, were stronger in the tackle … and their skill level in the last quarter was superior to ours.”
Dew explained that defender Sam Day had picked up a shoulder injury but did not think it was too concerning.