HAWTHORN officially announced itself as an AFLW premiership contender with Hawks coach Daniel Webster declaring his side could “beat anyone” on its day following the four-point “confidence booster” win over Brisbane yesterday. Travelling up to Brighton Homes Arena, the Hawks were in control during the middle two quarters, and then starved off a late Lions fightback to win, 4.9 (33) to 3.11 (29).

Keeping Brisbane to just one goal after quarter time, the Hawks defended bravely late, and while they have areas to “tighten up”, Webster said the “fight and effort” was “phenomenal” and he was “really proud of the group”.

“We know they’re one of the best teams in the competition,” he said. “They’re in a position that we aspire to be. To come up here Round 1 it’s always difficult, it’s obviously a little bit warmer and we were cramping a bit at the end. It’s going to be phenomenal for us in terms of knowing if you can beat Brisbane in Brisbane, you can beat anyone so it’s a good confidence booster for us.”

Though they came away with the win, the Hawks mentor conceded they were still a “little fumbly” and that restricted the brown and gold from breaking away further having dominated the midfield with 27 clearances to 17.

“It was a high pressure game, but just even little things, the ground’s a bit harder than we’re used to and the ball bounces around a little bit more, I think little things like that,” Webster said. “I thought that aspect of the game can sharpen up and get better, our ability to control the ball and make good decisions.

“There were some ones that gave me a few more grey hairs, but again the bones of what we’re trying to achieve are there, it’s in a good position that we’re in a refining tightening up stage and just get consistency in what we do.

“The clearance numbers were in our favour, and again I thought we could have been a little bit cleaner at times and we could have been even more on top. “That’s the thing if you don’t win the source against Brisbane you’re chasing their runners around all day and it’s going to be a long day at the office, so I was very happy with the midfield side of things and I think we looked strong in there.”

Webster’s counterpart, Lions coach Craig Starcevich concurred with the synopsis of the game.

“I think both teams were a bit fumbly, it was a little bit blowy today and that might have added to it, but it was a pretty scrappy affair really,” he said. “Probably not the best exhibition of what our league’s about between two decent teams, but despite all of that we were close enough in the end with the chance to pinch it but didn’t quite get there.”

Starcevich did not hold back in his assessment of his side, describing their clearance work in the middle as “poor” while admitting the Lions struggled to get any transitional movement from end-to-end which has been a hallmark of their side.

“I mean the first quarter was okay,” he said. “Our normal measure of work is pressure and we were pretty good in the first quarter and we scored on the back of it a couple of times which was good. “Middle of the game, they ramped that up themselves and made life hard for us.”

While the Lions coach agreed with the thought that it could have been Round 1 rust, he also praised the Hawks for their fantastic defensive performance.

“A little bit (off, being Round 1), but I think you’ve got to give some credit to the opposition,” Starcevich said. “They were able to put enough pressure on us that we couldn’t move it the way we wanted to move it, so full credit to them. “Well done by them, we’ll be better we’ve been in this situation before and found a way to dig deep and compete better than what we have today so we’ll rely on that a bit.”

Webster said one of the key plans entering the game was to try and apply pressure to the Lions’ behind the ball to negate their run and ability to set up scoring opportunities off half-back.

“We knew they wanted to chip the ball around and get some overlap run,” he said. “We put a lot of time into trying to do that, I thought our forwards did a great job to slow the source down and that gave us time to set up behind. “They’re obviously so dangerous when they get you out the back and there were a couple of times early. Knowing is one thing, it’s very hard.”

Brisbane has a massive trip west to take on an impressive Fremantle for Round 2 next Saturday, while the Hawks host Carlton down in Frankston straight after that match.