Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell had been trying to tell people that his ladder-leading Hawks weren’t as good as what was being said about them and now he has proof.
Mitchell’s men were embarrassed in a first-half onslaught by Port Adelaide that saw them trail by 71 points in the much-hyped Gather Round finale before they fought back in the second half to lose by 30.
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The pre-match talk had been about the grudge match between Ken Hinkley’s side and Jack Ginnivan and the unbeaten Hawks following the acrimonious scenes after last year’s semi-final, won by the Power.
But Port’s first-half rampage changed that focus.
Port power over lacklustre Hawks | 04:00
“Where did we go wrong?” Mitchell replied when asked what his chat to his players was about post-match.
“They obviously taught us a bit of a lesson.
“We’re a bit torn, obviously there was a bit riding on the game and we would have loved to have played much better than that.
“The first half of that game was unacceptable and not the way that we want to play, not the style of play that we try to produce.
“I’m trying to work out why.
“We’re 4-1 and not in a terrible position on the year, but it doesn’t feel like that right in this moment.”
'I reckon it's really unfair' | 10:54
There had been talk of a Hawthorn small forwards’ airplane goal celebration in reference to last season’s much-discussed semi-final win by the Power, but that never came to pass because neither Ginnivan nor Nick Watson kicked a goal.
“They talk all the time about the celebrations they might do,” Mitchell said.
“Obviously, anyone who has ever done a celebration like that they’ve prepped them at some point.
“You can look at that and think that we were talking about it, but it certainly wasn’t a collective discussion.
“It’s one of those moments where we need to learn from it.
“The off-field stuff, I didn’t think was the issue, I think it was what happened on the field, they really taught us a lesson in the early part of the game.
“There were plenty of issues on the field, and they’re the ones that we’re going to be trying to sort out.
“They instigated the game, they dictated, they taught us a lesson.
“But we’re better than we played, I think we’re better than that first half, and we’re going to have to prove that next week.”
Asked if players may have gotten ahead of themselves following a 4-0 start to the season, Mitchell said: “I don’t think so.
“You guys have said it’s been a hot start to the year. The ladder looked great, we were 4-0 and on top of the ladder. But we probably look at the game a bit more forensically.
“We’re not trying to sell media stories, we’re actually trying to win premierships. We’re looking under the hood of our game. Even though we’ve been winning, we know our game has not been humming along.
“Some of those areas we suspected were going to cause us some trouble if we didn’t get right reared their heads today. We’ve got a bit of work to do on our game.”
The Hawks face Geelong on Easter Monday.
