AFL Rd 16 live updates: Hawthorn vs GWS at the MCG – blog, scores and stats

The Giants have no answer right now.

The Hawks are sweeping GWS aside at the minute. Nick Watson gets his mitts on it again, and he kicks his third of the night!

That is his 100th AFL goal, in his 58th AFL game.

How DO you stop the Wizard?

There’s no worries about Nick Watson’s fitness!

The Hawks kick the ball long inside 50 to a pack.

It somehow goes through the hands and bounces toward goal, where Watson bursts through grabs it and throws it on the boot to get it just inside the post (all in one motion, or nearly!)

The Hawks are putting the foot down, and Jack Ginnivan is the latest to score a goal this quarter.

We are into time on, and the lead is out to 23 points.

It seems like Max Gruzewski’s injury is a patella (kneecap) dislocation. Like we said, no good. Best wishes to the young Giant for a quick recovery.

The night is just sliding a bit for the visitors.

The Hawks are sensing an opportunity, they get it to Cam McKenzie, who runs around and thumps a right-foot bomb from near 50.

It goes through!

The Hawks are rolling. The lead is out to 17 points.

This game is turning into a game of attrition.

Brent Daniels has come off the ground with a big calf injury, and he could hardly make it off. He’s got a problem.

But it has got a lot worse, with Max Gruzewski (back in the side tonight) going down in backplay.

It looked like his knee may have buckled on him. No good at all.

He comes off slowly, and the Giants are in big injury trouble on the bench.

Nick Watson has been pretty well held by Joe Fonti in the first part of this game.

The Wizard only had eight touches, but his ninth was a beauty!

He got it in the right forward pocket and snapped a great goal to extend the Hawks margin.

There was thought he might have had an issue with his hamstring, Watson does the usual run-off post goal.

That was nearly the play of the night from GWS!

They swept downfield in the old-style Orange Tsunami.

It went from player to player and the Hawks had no answer.

It fell to Max Gruzewski, who ran inside 50, steadied … and missed the kick!

Bad miss that.

There’s only five points in it, halfway through the quarter.

The Giants have been inside 50 13 times – they have eight scoring shots from them.

The latest of these is a poster from Phoenix Gothard.

GWS look dangerous every time they go forward, but they are struggling to generate enough forward flow.

If they get that right, they could be in this.

The Hawks didn’t wait long to hit back against the Giants.

Jack Ginnivan kicked the goal to extend the lead, but the real headline came during the move, when Lachie Ash got his ankle caught under him in a contest.

He doesn’t look right, but he’s staying out there! For now, at least.

This has been a pretty average start to the second term.

The non-rain dampness on the MCG is making everyone look like juniors out there. Not much clean use out there.

But the Giants get it inside 50, and there is a free called in favour of Max Gruzewski. However Toby Greene grabs the ball, and what do you think happens? Advantage paid, Toby sharks the goal that Gruzewski should have had 20m out.

The Giants close in to a point!

Melza,

You’re not wrong. The Giants have a 1 to 1 kick to handball ratio (52 kicks, 52 handballs), but only once have they managed to string them together in their normal way – that was for Lachie Ash’s goal.

They’d want to start hitting their targets here.

• Inside 50s: 17-7 Hawthorn

• Clearances: 14-6 Hawthorn

• Centre clearances: 3-2 Hawthorn

• Contested possessions: 40-35 Hawthorn

• Uncontested possessions: 66-49 GWS

A late 50m penalty to the Giants allows Toby Bedford to kick for goal for the visitors. He misses, and considering the way this quarter has gone, the seven-point margin flatters GWS. A lot.

Hawthorn has controlled this game, and they have made it incredibly difficult for GWS to set up attacks.

And yet, for all that dominance, they haven’t made it really pay on the scoreboard.

The Giants might well fancy their chances here, on the grounds that it can’t go quite that badly for them from here.

There’s no rain falling at the MCG, and there doesn’t seem to be much wind. But it’s clearly not easy conditions for holding onto the ball.

The BOM app is saying there’s 100 per cent humidity in Melbourne – that can’t be right, but maybe there’s some dew on the ground.

Whatever it is, plenty of players are fumbly out there.

Hawthorn are dominating here in the opening term, and their stoppage work is causing all sorts of problems, particularly for Joe Fonti.

He started off on Nick Watson, but he’s been generally under the pump so far.

He’s just given away a holding free kick while waiting for another forward ball-up.

Cam McKenzie takes the kick, but his snap around the corner misses just to the right.

Hawks by nine points.

The Hawks are showing how they can score in different ways.

They took it forward, forced a stoppage inside the arc. The ball fell pretty easily to Connor Macdonald, and his snap from 30-35m out went through!

The home side leads by eight points coming close to time on in the opening quarter.

GWS coach Adam Kingsley wouldn’t have been happy with the 50m penalty, but his mood would have improved here.

The Giants go forward and take their chance, with Stephen Coniglio kicking a goal from distance.

They’re back within a kick.

I’ve seen some interesting things, but that’s up there?

Aaron Cadman dropped a mark on the wing, the Hawks broke and Harry Morrison hit up Calsher Dear just inside the arc.

But as he lined up, suddenly the umpire was ordering him forward. We’re not sure if it was an interchange error or what, but whatever they found, the Hawks were kicking from the square.

Hawks extend the lead!