Hawks Locked & Loaded For Finals
TOMORROW the Box Hill Hawks will launch their finals campaign against a Footscray side that denied them last year’s premiership.
But Hawks’ vice-captain Marc Lock has insisted that Box Hill will attack things differently this time around.
“We’ll be looking to play an attacking kind of football that we perhaps didn’t bring to last year’s grand final,” said Hawks’ vice-captain Marc Lock.
Box Hill’s defence has also been bolstered since last season, and the Hawks finished the home-and-away season with the best defensive record in the VFL.
“Guys like Sam Collins and Tom Gordon have taken their games to another level this year,” said Lock.
Unfortunately the Hawks’ midfield will be missing one of its crucial cogs in Mitch O’Donnell, who injured his ACL in last week’s disappointing result to Williamstown.
“It’s going to take a full-team effort to cover the loss of Mitch,” said Lock.
While the news of O’Donnell’s injury has been upsetting, Lock is adamant that last week’s 14-point loss hasn’t dampened the mood within the club.
“I feel like we have some good momentum going into finals – obviously last week wasn’t ideal – but I think the group is feeling pretty good,” said Lock.
The Hawks are also feeling good about playing the qualifying final at their home ground.
“The boys are all excited to play at City Oval. The whole season was really played to try and get a home final and the double chance,” said Lock.
The vice-captain’s own season didn’t start as planned, but he has been in a rich vein of form and last week collected 33 possessions.
“I didn’t have much of a pre-season because of troubles with my groins, but I’ve started to hit some form over the last couple of weeks – so hopefully that continues during the finals,” said Lock.
The Box Hill Hawks will play their qualifying final against Footscray on Saturday the 5th of September at Box Hill City Oval: 2:00pm.
Box Hill’s development squad will host Williamstown in its qualifying final at 11:00am – also on Saturday the 5th of September at Box Hill City Oval.
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Photo credit: Jenny Owens
