Hawthorn will be without the core of their senior leaders for multiple weeks, with both Luke Hodge and Jordan Lewis set to eat suspensions for a pair of ugly hits on North Melbourne players during a string of spiteful first quarter clashes in their match on Saturday night.
Hawks captain Hodge will go straight to the AFL Tribunal, with the AFL’s Match Review Panel assessing the incident in which Hodge flattened North’s Andrew Swallow with a vicious elbow to the jaw severe enough to warrant specific investigation.
The hit followed a succession of physical confrontations between the players and came off less like the behaviour of a revered multi-time Premiership captain and more like the actions of a cowardly street thug, levelling Swallow as Hodge rose up from a game stoppage.
It’s expected that the tribunal will hand down a suspension of three weeks minimum to Hodge, given the severity and spiteful nature of the hit. Hodge’s saving grace in this case was the apparent lack of lingering injury or impairment suffered by Swallow as a result of the hit.
Nonetheless, it’s a shocking brain-fade from the midfielder, much less one of such experience and reverence as Hodge carries with him. For any player, it’s absolutely unacceptable. But for Hodge, it’s poor form of the absolute highest order.
Meanwhile, the MRP has offered fellow Hawks midfielder Jordan Lewis a two week ban for another ugly hit in the first quarter of the North match, this time on ‘Roos ruckman Todd Goldstein.
The very late, extremely reckless hit characterised the rough, man-first football the Hawks employed in the first quarter – reminiscent of the infamous 2004 Line in the Sand match against Essendon.
On this occasion, however, it was Hawthorn that managed to stop hitting the opposition and start hitting the scoreboard, eventually running out comfortable 10 goal winners, defeating the Roos 19.16 (130) to 10.10 (70).
Lewis will miss matches against Greater Western Sydney and Melbourne, returning in time for the all-important Grand Final replay against Sydney in Round 8, whilst Hodge will more than likely be on the sidelines for at least a week beyond that.
Photo: Quinn Rooney via Getty Images.
