Round 11 Match Preview: Hawks and ‘Gulls Set for Showdown

After a wait of just over four years – 1,463 days in fact – the Box Hill Hawks will square off against Williamstown for premiership points.

The sides last met in round 9, 2019 and but for a pre-season hit out this year haven’t crossed paths in season since. 

On Saturday it’ll be the third placed Hawks entertaining the sixth placed Seagulls at Box Hill City Oval.

Who: Williamstown
Where: Box Hill City Oval
When: Saturday 3 June
First bounce: 2:05pm

A Little Bit of History

At various points over the past 25 years the Hawks and Seagulls have had one of the VFL’s best – if not most underrated – rivalries.

In a modern sense, the highlight is unquestionably a trilogy of high stakes, high quality finals contested between 2013 and 2015.

Pitted against one another in three successive Septembers, the Hawks would take the 2013 qualifying final and 2014 preliminary final, while Williamstown would have the last – and most significant laugh – when they kicked away from a hobbled and hamstrung Box Hill to capture the 2015 flag. 

This ‘trilogy’ came at the tail end of a period in which Williamstown won eight in a row between Round 8 2007 and round 21 2011, but since it’s been largely tit-for-tat.

Box Hill would break that long run of outs with victory in round 11 2012 and put together a run of five wins on the bounce between the qualifying final of 2013 and round 10 of 2015.

As if to illustrate the topsy-turvy and even nature of the rivalry, the home team has won just two of the past 10 matches between Hawks and Seagulls – Box Hill in round 10 of 2014 and round 9 of 2019.

More recently Box Hill have taken the last three match-ups – including a legendary, all-time great preliminary final by a single point in 2018.

2023 So Far

Box Hill’s excellent start to 2023 continued last weekend with a 47-point win over arch-rivals Essendon at The Hangar. 

The result moved the Hawks to 7-1 on the season and into third place on the VFL ladder, four points behind the second placed Gold Coast and eight in arrears of ladder leaders Brisbane; though, it is important to note the Hawks have a game in hand on both.

While the Hawks are the only team on seven wins, there is a log jam of four teams – Werribee, Casey, Williamstown and GWS – who all sit a game further back and are eager to pounce on any slip up as the home and away season hits the mid-way point. 

The win over Essendon was the sixth time in eight starts Box Hill have kept their opponent to under 60-points of total offence and the fifth time they’d put up 100-plus points of their own. 

Interestingly, Saturday’s match will pit the league’s two most miserly defences against one another. The Hawks’ 490 points allowed ranks as no.1 in the competition, while Williamstown are ranked second with 526. 

While even in the back-half, in front of goal the Hawks have put up 815 points to rank as the fourth best attack, while Williamstown rank 13th with 636.

The Seagulls’ 2023 campaign has been largely excellent. Having lost their season opener to the high-flying Suns, Willy went on to account for Frankston, Port Melbourne and Coburg in consecutive weeks.

A disappointing 93-point loss to a strong Werribee in round five is the obvious lowlight, but Justin Plapp’s side put themselves back in the mix for a top four berth with another hat-trick of wins, this time against Collingwood, Sydney and Carlton before enjoying a bye last weekend. 

Like the Hawks they’ve allowed 60-points or fewer on six occasions, but have hit the ton themselves just twice. What’s the old saying about unstoppable forces and immovable objects?

Selection News

Box Hill have made four changes to the side which defeated Essendon last weekend, re-calling emerging midfielder Josh Ward and crafty small forward Jack O’Sullivan.

Stu Horner has recovered from a hamstring strain and features for the first time since round four, while Mitch Sruk is back in the senior mix as the Club’s 23rd man.

Zane Littlejohn loses the magnets of Ryan Maric and Ethan Stanley, who packed their bags and headed west following Wednesday’s mid-season draft, while Bailey Macdonald and Jack Scrimshaw have won call-ups to Hawthorn’s squad.

The Ben Cavarra Cup

The first-ever ‘Ben Cavarra Cup,’ created the morning this article was published, is to be contested annually (and unofficially) in a round robin format between the four VFL sides Ben Cavarra has represented – Box Hill, Williamstown, Frankston and Footscray.

Owing to Cav’s love of the round ball game points will be awarded a la the World Cup group stages (three for a win, one for a draw, zero for a loss), with the team sitting atop the standings at season’s end taking home the second most prestigious team prize in the VFL – and certainly the most exclusive. 

This Saturday’s match kicks off an important stretch of back-to-back-to-back weekends of Cavarra Cup action, with title defining match-ups scheduled for each of rounds 11, 12 and 13.

Somewhat pleasingly, each of the four team’s Cav has played for have been fixtured to play the other in season 2023 – something I hope will continue for decades to come. 

Completed matches

Round 2: Frankston 5.17 47 def by Williamstown 11.8 74

Remaining fixtures

Round 11: Box Hill vs Williamstown
Round 12: Frankston vs Footscray
Round 13: Williamstown vs Footscray
Round 21: Box Hill vs Footscray
Round 22: Frankston vs Box Hill

Current Standings

Standings	Played	Points	+/-
Williamstown	1	3	27
Box Hill	0	0	0
Footscray	0	0	0
Frankston	1	0	-27

Home Sweet Home

Saturday shapes as a bumper day of sensational footy at City Oval, with the Hawks and Seagulls to go head-to-head in back-to-back clashes.

The third placed VFLW Hawks host the eighth placed Seagulls to kick things off at 11:30am, before third meets sixth in VFL action at 2:05pm.

Patrons who enter before 12:30pm will be granted free entry. 

Whistle Blower’s Milestone

Field umpire Andrew Talbot will take charge of his 236th VFL match this weekend – a new competition record.

Talbot already holds the record as the most-capped field umpire, but on Saturday he will surpass goal umpire Peter Balding’s tally of 235 VFL matches in the white or, I suppsoe, light green these days.

Somewhat fittingly, Talbot will make VFL history on the ground where his state league umpiring journey started.

One to Watch

A hard-working, powerful, ball-winning inside bull, Mitch Sruk will play his second game of the 2023 VFL season on Saturday.

Capable of running on ball or playing across half-forward or half-back, the Rowville-aligned Sruk offers his coaches positional versatility – so don’t be surprised if he features across all three lines. 

Playful and energetic on the track during the week, Box Hill’s no.80 will be provide his side with plenty of voice, enthusiasm and physicality between the sirens on game day. 

How To Follow

Hawks fans can keep up-to-date with all the action via our official social media channels.

Curated match commentary will be provided on Twitter, while further coverage will be available across Instagram and Facebook.  

Where To Watch

All VFL matches can be streamed via the AFL app. Coverage of Sunday’s game starts at 2:00pm and can be found in the match hub or via this link.

Further, radio commentary can be found via our community radio partner, 3WBC 94.1FM.