Bone-jarring collision could sideline Hawk
Hawthorn's Luke Breust collides with Crow Brodie Martin's hip. Photo: Getty
HAWTHORN coach Alastair Clarkson is relieved that a week's rest is likely to be the worst-case outcome for Luke Breust after the brutal body clash he endured late in the Hawks' 56-point thumping of Adelaide.
The lively forward was taken from the MCG on a stretcher after running with the flight of the ball and being struck high with the hip of Adelaide's Brodie Martin, who was pursuing the loose ball from the opposite direction after coming off the interchange bench.
Breust, whose three goals were pivotal in the Hawks' second-half dominance of the Crows, appeared to have been knocked unconscious but was talking to medical staff a few minutes later.
Clarkson said Breust was able to recall details of the match in the change rooms.
Clarkson said it seemed Breust had only ''rattled the scone a little bit'' but could miss the Saturday night match against West Coast.
''He's recovered OK. It was a pretty severe hit so with a six-day break … and [travelling to] Perth it'd be probably unlikely that he'll play next week. But we'll wait and see how he recovers.
''He'll be OK, which is pleasing, because when they come from the blind side like that you can actually do a more severe injury than just knock the melon around a little bit.
''He was perhaps a bit fortunate there because he was very, very open.''
The Hawks' victory was fuelled by a dominance in marks and uncontested possessions.
Their 406-301 advantage in overall possessions and 140-51 lead in marks was described as ''crazy'' by Adelaide coach Brenton Sanderson, who was also baffled how Hawthorn could control so much of the play yet still lead the tackle tally 79-50.
''For a side that dominated possession, [for Hawthorn] to have 30 more tackles was probably the most disappointing thing from my point of view,'' he said.
''At least if they had the ball you'd think we would have won the tackle count, but they just slipped through us today. Their tackle intent was just ferocious.''
Adelaide's contested-possession advantage was trumped by the home team's lead in uncontested possessions.
The lack of pressure on Hawthorn players when in possession helped it become even more proficient with precise disposal than usual.
Four of Hawthorn's top eight possession-winners were defenders: Josh Gibson (29), Brent Guerra (27), Ryan Schoenmakers (22) and Ben Stratton (21).
Sanderson lamented that his attempts to rob Hawthorn of a loose defender had failed.
''When they had seven defenders and we sent a seventh [forward] they sent an eighth, so they just kept loading up until it became all the players at one end and [Cyril] Rioli open in their forward 50,'' the first-season coach said.
''We didn't want to get to the point where it flooded our forward line. We just didn't have enough pressure on the ball-carrier today. They were able to just get their short kicking game going, and we couldn't get the ball off them at times.''
Clarkson praised the workrate of relief ruckman Jarryd Roughead, who collected 22 possessions and had a game-high eight tackles in his second match back after a serious Achilles injury. He said the club would have to decide whether to persist with him and David Hale against the Eagles' ''couple of monsters'' - Dean Cox and Nic Naitanui - or also bring back Broc McCauley, who was a late withdrawal yesterday with a virus.