How these blue-collar Hawks outshone big-money Charlie

March 20, 2026 — 1:45am

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Sam Mitchell’s Hollywood Hawks have a blue-collar edge.

This Hawthorn team arrived on the scene amid much glitz and glamour but under the MCG’s Thursday night lights they rolled their sleeves up to disarm Sydney’s run-and-gun, box-office game and win by 17 points – 14.15 (99) to 13.4 (82).

The most telling difference came at opposite ends of the ground, the product of the Hawks’ appetite for the contest when the ball was in between these zones.

Jack Gunston, Mabior Chol and Mitch Lewis, whose combined pay packet only just matches Charlie Curnow’s, all played key roles, while the Swans’ high-priced prized recruit had zero impact after two goals in the first term. He touched the ball just once in the second half.

Gunston, a central figure in the Hawthorn teams that broke Sydney hearts in the 2010s, exacted more pain on a new breed of Swans. His fourth goal was the sealer to a win that seemed unlikely early in the third quarter when the Swans broke away to a 20-point lead.

I copped a spray over this AFL invention. Thank goodness it’s gone

Wayne CampbellAge columnist and former Richmond captain

Age columnist and former........

© The Age