Questions have been asked on whether the Hawks are costing themselves opportunities to score by trying to draw free kicks following their thrilling clash with Gold Coast in Darwin last Thursday night.
Hawthorn only narrowly fell to the Suns by eight points at TIO Stadium in arguably the game of the round, but Hawks players trying to accentuate free kicks from umpires has come under the microscope.
After leading the AFL in free kicks in forward 50 last season, Hawthorn is again ranked No.1 in that area in 2025 (15) ahead of Carlton (12) and North Melbourne (10).
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Several instances from Thursday night’s game with Gold Coast caught the eye of David King in a tactic the North Melbourne legend believes could in fact be hurting the Hawks.
“One of the biggest talking points with Hawthorn and out of this game is the high tackles — is it a skill or something people are outraged by and want stamped out of the game?,” King posed on Fox Footy’s The First Crack.
“I think it’s costing Hawthorn opportunities to fire handballs out and give them the secondary opportunity to score.”
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While King didn’t necessarily have an issue with players trying to draw free kicks, he questioned what the flow-on effect was when free kicks weren’t awarded.
“If you don’t draw the free kick, you’re missing the Hawks on the outside,” the dual premiership Roo continued.
“I think they’re leaving goal opportunities on the table trying to draw free kicks.
“It will be interesting to see how Sam Mitchell assesses that. It’s great when it works and you get the free kick, but when it doesn’t, you’re in real strife.”
Nick Watson was prolific against Gold Coast with an equal team-high three goals from 12 disposals to continue a strong season from the second-year small forward.
But a crucial contest inside the last 90 seconds of the match — where Watson appeared to try and draw a high free kick on a perfectly executed tackle from Noah Anderson with Hawks teammates besides him — crucially denied Hawthorn a scoring opportunity when the game was still up for grabs.
“This one here especially, he’s going into crash position straight away,” King said of the play.
“He’s got James Worpel and James Sicily on the outside. That’s the last play of the day.”
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