No more than a goal has separated Sydney and Hawthorn the last three times the sides have met and Swans coach John Longmire is expecting the rivalry to again deliver on Friday night.
Sydney and Hawthorn will kick off Round 8 at the MCG and Longmire said the Hawks’ intensity at the contest made them a force to be reckoned with.
“Their pressure around the ball has been huge,” Longmire said.
“They’re playing really consistent footy in all three phases of the game and they’ve got the ability to hit the scoreboard.
“But their ability to be able to win the ball in tight and put the pressure on the opposition when they’re winning it has been elite.”
Hawthorn sits in fourth on the ladder and has won five games and lost two, while Sydney is placed eighth with four wins and three losses to its name after the opening seven rounds.
The Hawks are ranked seventh in clearances per game (37) and star Hawthorn midfielder Tom Mitchell tops the competition (nine).
The former Swan was particularly strong at the stoppages against the Geelong Cats in Round 2 (13 clearances) and Melbourne (14) in Round 4.
But the Hawks’ ferocity is at its peak when the opposition has the footy in hand.
They are ranked fourth in the competition in tackles per game (67) and Hawthorn midfielder Liam Shiels (eight) comes in at third league-wide.
The Hawks have notched wins over Collingwood, Geelong, Melbourne, St Kilda and Essendon this season and last Saturday accounted for the Bombers in a 23-point win.
They trailed by seven points at half-time but threw caution to the wind in a one-sided six-goals-to-zero third term.
The third-quarter blitz included 10 of the game’s 11 goals scored across the second and third terms and opened up a 31-point buffer at the final change.
Mitchell is Hawthorn’s reigning best and fairest and is leading the AFL Coaches’ Associations Champion Player of the Year alongside Fremantle’s Nat Fyfe.
Some sides have tagged Mitchell in 2018 and others have allowed him to run free.
He tops the competition in disposals per game (36) and reeled in 54 against Collingwood in Round 1.
Longmire said there was a possibility the Swans would place a tag on the 2017 All-Australian.
“You don’t go into a game knowing what Tom’s been able to rack up and not consider it,” Longmire said.
“What you do know is regardless of whether you’ve got anyone on him or not he’s going to get 15 or 20 possessions and that’s at the very least. So you understand that he’s always going to get the ball.
“Like any opposition player, and they’ve got a few of them, you try to nullify their influence. It’s very hard to nullify those players that go in and pick it up from the bottom of the pack, which Tom is very good at.”
The last three Swans-Hawks matches have been decided by five points, six points and six points.
The last four played at the MCG are split down the middle and the sides have squared off in two recent grand finals, Sydney prevailing in 2012 and Hawthorn in 2014.
Up to 20 millimetres of rain are expected for Melbourne on Friday and a torrential downfall would place a premium on winning the hard ball.
Longmire said the Swans were keenly awaiting another gruelling chapter in the fierce rivalry and said his side would relish the slippery conditions.
“We’ve had some great games in the past and the rivalry has gone on for a long time. We hope it’s a wet, very contested game this week.”
