Match Previews: Hawks On Shark Hunt
September continues to come early for the fifth-placed Box Hill Hawks, who venture north this weekend to take on the sixth-placed Southport Sharks.
Who: Southport Sharks
Where: Fankhauser Reserve
When: Saturday, 12:05pm
TV/Streaming: VFL live stream available via the VFL Match Centre.
Box Hill: played 13, won 9, lost 4 – 5th on the ladder
Southport: played 13 won 9, lost 4 – 6th on the ladder
A Little Bit of History
Played 2 (since 2022) – Box Hill 1, Southport 1
The Hawks and Sharks have met just twice since Southport entered the VFL in 2021, with both meetings to date having been played at Box Hill City Oval.
In the first meeting of the sides in round 16, 2022, it was Southport who underlined their premiership aspirations, coming to Melbourne to defeat the Hawks by 15-points.
That loss came at the end of three match winless sequences for the Hawks, who’d dropped away games to the Bulldogs and Giants before falling to Southport.
16-point in arrears at the first change and five goals behind come the long break, Box Hill rallied in the second half to twice cut the margin to just nine points. In fact, when Jai Serong kicked truly at the 23 minute mark of the final quarter it looked as though the comeback was on.
It wasn’t to be, however, as the Sharks steadied to kick the final major of the afternoon and secure a 15-point win.
Southport would go on to finish runner-up to Casey that year. Finishing third on the ladder and winning through to the decider by sweeping aside fellow Queenslanders Brisbane and Gold Coast in back-to-back finals.
2023 was a transitional year for the Sharks, who after two seasons in the VFL endured something of a reset campaign. They would miss the finals altogether after recording a 8-10 record, with one of those 10 losses coming at the hands of a well-performed Hawks outfit in round nine.
17-points to the good at half-time, Box Hill kept the visitors in the contest with a wayward return of 2.5 in the third, before seeing out the game with 4.4 in the last to win by 39-points.
Jaylon Thorpe booted three goals on the day, while soon-to-be mid-season draftee Ryan Maric kicked two of his own. Both Jai Serong and Max Hall each added a pair of six-pointers, as Henry Hustwaite and Cal Brown each racked up 26 touches.
2023 So Far
When I say there’s not much between the Hawks and Sharks in season 2024 I mean it.
The two sides sit fifth and sixth on the ladder, share identical nine-and-four records, have both won four of their last five, have both scored 1,120 points and are separated on the ladder by just 0.8% – by virtue of Box Hill having conceded six fewer points.
The Hawks put the narrow loss to Port Melbourne behind them last weekend, returning to winning ways by defeating the Cats by a solitary point – a result which catapulted Box Hill back into the competition’s top six.
The boys in brown and gold have enjoyed a stop-start campaign to this point, winning three games in succession just once, and putting back-to-back wins on the board just twice more. A win in the sunshine state will be just the tonic for a Hawks outfit keen to push on towards yet another assault on September.
As for the Sharks, they’ve had a similarly up-and-down season to this point.
A round one win over Port Melbourne was followed by a narrow loss to Werribee in round two, a 46-point defeat against Williamstown in round three and a frantic one-point victory over Essendon in round four.
Sitting at two-and-two after four rounds, they would fall to Brisbane in round five, before going on a tear to see off Collingwood, Gold Coast, the Northern Bullants, Frankston, Williamstown, Coburg and Carlton in a flawless seven week spell.
This run catapulted the Sharks into the mix for the top four, before a last-start loss to the Giants halted their winning streak, before sitting out round 15 with a bye.
Selection News
Zane Littlejohn and his match committee made four changes to the side which defeated Geelong last weekend, regaining Seamus Mitchell from the senior set-up, Andreas Stefanakis and Daniel Wood from spells out of the side and, interestingly, handing a debut to top aged Sandringham Dragons prospect Ned Maginness.
The son of two-time Hawthorn premiership player and brother of current Hawk Finn, Ned is a 194cm midfielder who remains father-son eligible in the 2024 draft.
The Hawks will be without developing tall Jasper Scaife, who picked up an injury in training late in the week, and Chad Wingard, who will miss having aggravated a calf complaint as he continues to build form and fitness .
Josh Ward has be rewarded for a sensational month at the development level, while young small forward Seb Amoroso misses out on balance.
One(s) to Watch
It’s easy to point towards the debuting Ned Maginness and last week’s match-winner: his brother Finn.
The pair will turn out together in brown and gold for the first time on Saturday. Strong in the contest and hard running, hopefully fans will get to see them combine in and around the packs and on the spread.
How To Follow
Match coverage will be provided via our social channels throughout the day, while a radio call will be available via our wonderful community partners 3WBC 94.1FM.
Where To Watch
You can catch the live stream via the VFL match centre!
VFL live stream available via the VFL Match Centre.
Membership
It might be late in the season, but it’s never too late to support the mighty Box Hill Hawks and, as always, membership is the best way to do it!
You can purchase your 2024 Box Hill Hawks membership via this link.
