HAWTHORN took a big scalp on Thursday night, defeating the injury-ravaged Cats at GMHBA Stadium by 18 points.

It was the Hawks’ big guns that did the damage with Emily Bates and Eliza West featuring heavily in the win. Bates recorded a game-high 28 disposals, two marks, eight tackles and three clearances, while West had 24 touches, 16 tackles, seven clearances and three marks.

Head coach Daniel Webster spoke post-match about the win against a strong Geelong outfit.

“It was very good, obviously to get a win down here against a very good team,” Webster explained.

“We rate Geelong very highly, they were in a prelim last year and were a kick away from being in a grand final so we know how good they are.

“To get the win against really good opposition, I mean for us [and] the journey we’re on, to beat a side that as I said we rate them so well.

“We’ve still got some things to work on, which you always take out of these games and that’s the learning but just really pumped for the group.”

In addition to the established AFLW players at the Hawks continuing their rich vein of form, it was some of the younger players that shone.

Jasmine Fleming kicked her first goal since joining the league in Season 7, and also had 17 disposals, six tackles and four clearances. Webster described how they anticipated Fleming getting her first major in the match.

“It was great to see ‘Jas’ get her first,” he said. “I was joking with her before and I tipped that she would get two tonight but she only got the one for me, that was a bit stiff.”

Mackenzie Eardley has continued to grow this season, becoming a crucial piece in Hawthorn’s plans due to her versatility. She kicked two goals to go along with 12 touches, six marks, two tackles and four hit-outs when giving Lucy Wales some ruck relief.

“‘Mac’ was great, she was thrown forward and [she spent] a little bit of time in the ruck tonight. The versatility that she gives us is amazing.” Webster said.

A player that particularly impressed Webster was Laura Stone, who starred with three goals in the contest.

“I thought ‘Stoney’ was fantastic,” he said. “I thought ‘Stoney’ set the tone for us early in the game in the first and second quarters just with her contested work and being strong over the footy and then to see her get rewarded was really good.

“She’s been playing everywhere this year, she started in defence, we’ve moved her onto a wing and now we’ve moved her forward. “She’s just good at football generally so it’s easy for us to just from a coaching staff [perspective] throw her around but she looks comfortable up forward, it’s been really good for her.”

From a Geelong perspective, it was a winnable game after the first half, but lost when they were outscored in the second. In such a high scoring affair, the Cats let the Hawks score too freely in the fourth quarter.

Geelong coach Dan Lowther spoke about how he addressed his side after the disappointing loss.

“I just said to the girls, don’t be too despondent [with] the loss, even though it’s a hard one to swallow,” he said.

“To score like we scored, it would win a lot of games in the competition so there was no issue celebrating the fact that we got that part right across the four quarters.

“When you are giving up four goals in that third quarter, in quick response too, off the back of our scoring, thinking we might get a bit of a run on, and then to give up a score pretty quickly was the disappointing part.

“Full credit [has to go] to the Hawks, they were strong around the contest, [they] had a real point to prove I think around that first phase and then they got us on the outside at times as well which kind of kickstarted their movement forward.

“We just looked a bit all at sea sometimes in defence off the back of the ball going in there quite a bit so we defended okay for the most part but we gave up too many easy goals.”

For the Cats, it was the efforts of Aishling Moloney that kept them in the fight. She kicked three goals to go with her five marks and game-high eight score involvements.