SHill Shall
Club Legend
History remembers that game a certain way. Understandable due to final scoreboard. But the usual comments ... regulation Hawthorn win ... too good ... Lyon can't beat Clarkson ... that's not quite the full story.
Umpiring was the closest thing to cheating I have ever seen. Fyfe and Pav on one leg. No McPharlin. We actually did quite well. Hawthorn had 2nd fewest scoring shots all year but kicked 15.4 with lots of high difficulty shots.
At the ground, the sense was palpable that we were all over them in the last. You could see the players running over the top of Hawthorn. We had numbers everywhere and waves of runners and overlaps. TV just doesn't do this justice. I was sure we would win, until Sheridan dropped that mark. I'm not sure he shat himself just because of Rioli. We had a good setup on the wing/half forward and could have gone the length of the field. But needed to move it very quickly before it was shut down, and Tommy rushed/botched it.
Never seen a crowd/team deflate as much as that from one single incident. We may have been running over the top, but I suspect it was on fumes/adrenaline/home crowd energy ... and then that all disappeared instantly. Would have been a tough one for Sheridan to have on his shoulders.
Agree with your recollections.
And while Rioli was in the vicinity, Sheridan dropped an uncontested mark in a switching chain. Unforgivable.