Hawks fight hard in defeat

by Nicholas Duck
Drouin may have lost Saturday's contest against Traralgon but they'll have gained a few admirers following a spirited – and high scoring – effort at home.
Speed was the name of the game as both sides looked to test each other on the outside.
What followed was a mostly closely fought battle that saw the Maroons maintain a not-so-comfortable lead for the majority of the day until breaking away late to prevail 19.19 (133) to 16.9 (105).
Despite the defeat there was a lot more to like for the home side than the week prior where they were demolished by Warragul and managed only three goals.
Having identified their outside game as needing some work, the Hawks had a need for speed, holding their width and using the expanses of their home to full advantage.
The Maroons love to play a similar way – especially when they slingshot the footy from half back – making the ensuing game an easy watch.
Most pleasingly for the Hawks was their newfound resilience. After trailing by 25 at the first break the young Drouin players didn't drop their heads, instead taking advantage of a Traralgon yellow card to work right back into the game.
As hearty as they were, however, class and experience often wins out in footy. And Traralgon has plenty.
The Maroons found the extra gear they needed late, kicking away to seal their second win of the season – albeit in much tougher fashion than most expected.
Drouin were well led from the front by captain Seb Amoroso, who refused to give an inch at the contest or inside 50, where he snagged three goals.
The inclusion of the Hawks' Gippsland Power players – Blake Bibby, Kaiden Walmsley and Caleb Kleeven – as well as recruit and Box Hill Hawk Lane Ward gave them some extra flexibility around the ground.
What that meant was they could send Zayne Atkins and Max Williames to the half backline, where the pair enjoyed excellent performances to be among their side's best. Ben Brasier enjoyed one of his finest games yet in the maroon and gold out on the wing, while ruck Riley Wierzbicki played his heart out in the absence of injured big man Denver Lund.
Ewan Croucher rounded out the Hawks' top performers, with the youngster given a job on Traralgon coach and spearhead Dylan Loprese and doing nicely. Loprese finished the game with two goals but limited influence otherwise. Traralgon's finest inluded Joel Scholtes, whose rebound work from the backline set them up beautifully on more than one occasion.
Matthew Northe, Liam Willaton, William Brent, Mitchell Mustoe and Michael Jacobsen were their other players to impress.
It was Jacobsen who got the day's scoring started early, followed quickly by Jackson McMahon (three goals) capitalising on a Hawks turnover.
A nice clunk on the goal line by Jack Walsh gave the home side their first but the opening term was largely owned by the visitors, who cut Drouin open to great effect.
An incident in a marking contest just before quarter time, however, saw Maroon Tom Hamilton handed a yellow card and given his marching orders, leaving the visitors a man down on the field to begin the second term.
Drouin were able to take full toll, booting six goals across the second term to head into half time just 11 points down.
Midway through the third they were even able to sneak their way in front, the Drouin faithful roaring after Noah Lafrantz put through a goal to hand their team a one-point lead.
As was the case for most of the match though, whenever Drouin asked the question Traralgon had the answer.
Willaton ran one in straight after the centre bounce to restore Traralgon's lead – and this time they wouldn't give it up again.
Try as they might, and boy did they give it a good try, Traralgon had them covered, running out the game the stronger side.
While disappointed to lose, Drouin coach Jordan Kingi said he was "a lot happier this week, that's for sure."
"We worked on during the week what we didn't do great at all (last week). Looking at the stats against Warragul we recognised we let ourselves down on the outside," he said.
"Our mids held their width at the contest and once we got the ball going we could get one-on-ones in front of the ball.
"In the end though when the tough got going their leaders and experience shone. To our boys' credit though we gave ourselves an opportunity and that was my message at the start of the preseason, to give ourselves a real chance in as many games as we can and we did that.
"We wanted to give our crowd something to cheer about and I think we did. That's the standard for the rest of the year now."
Drouin will travel away to face Wonthaggi this Saturday.