THE match started in bright sunshine and finished in dismal rain. Applying the analogy to Hawthorn, it did the exact opposite.

With hail expected in Melbourne, the overwhelming consensus by amateur weather experts — all, no doubt, from Victoria — was that arctic conditions would prevail in Launceston.

Instead, the only thing cold (until the heavens opened in the last quarter) was the Hawks themselves, who for the first 30 minutes looked as if they had forgotten to warm up before running out.

With their defensive zone set-up being mercilessly taken apart by Port's shorter leading forwards, in the blink of an eye, the Hawks were down by 38 points.

Well, 25 minutes (and seven goals) to be exact, with three goals off the boot of Warren Tredrea, who was putting on an even better one-man show than Lance Franklin at the other end, who had the Hawks' only two majors.

There were only two answers. First, the zone — where the defenders set up in a diamond formation inside their defensive arc — had to go, which it did after Shaun Burgoyne, who, 30 seconds earlier had flattened Sam Mitchell with a bump to the temple, ran forward and drilled a goal as the stretcher was coming out for the Hawk midfielder.

Then, the midfield had to lift, which it began to, ironically with the Hawks' best midfielder nursing his scone in the changerooms. Mitchell came back midway through the second to join Brad Sewell, Jordan Lewis and Chance Bateman, who were starting to crack open the stoppages, thanks to good tall work from Simon Taylor and Robert Campbell, who took the honours from their fancied opponents Brendon Lade and Dean Brogan.

By three-quarter-time, Hawthorn had outscored the Power 13 goals to seven to go into the final term with a seven-point lead. Fittingly, it was Franklin's sixth goal during time-on in the third that pushed the Hawks into the lead for the first time.

They held on in a dour last quarter, in which the Power, through the efforts of Shaun Burgoyne and Kane Cornes, kept coming at them. But they were not headed again as they posted their eighth straight win by 15 points.

"It just took us a long time to try and peg them back, to the credit of our guys. We weren't playing good footy early, we were turning the footy over and making some silly errors and Port were controlling the ball," Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson said.

"But we worked our way back into the contest (and it) is a real credit to our boys that they did. It has probably got to do with the quality of player and the belief in one another. We just slowly had to grind away. It was a terrific performance by our guys to rebound like they did."

As if proving a point to the Victorian selectors who could not find a place for him in the Big V side last week, Sewell played a tremendous match after a slow start.

Sewell was brilliant at breaking the lines and drilled two goals on the run from outside 50 metres.

Port's intensity early in the match could not be questioned as it tackled and harried the Hawks, but Power coach Mark Williams was dismayed with the lack of midfield pressure his team applied after quarter-time.

"Without doubt, we got smashed out of the centre square, they kicked a lot of goals from there and that's the game as far as we were concerned," he said.

"We changed ruckmen, we changed people in there, we tried to have extra players behind the ball, we tried one of everything."


HAWTHORN 2.2 8.7 15.9 17.15 (117)
PORT ADELAIDE 7.4 11.6 14.8 15.12 (102)
GOALS Hawthorn: Franklin 6, Roughead 3, Osborne 2, Sewell 2, Williams, Young, McGlynn, Rioli. Port Adelaide: Tredrea 4, Ebert 3, Motlop 2, Gray 2, Thomson, S Burgoyne, Rodan, J Westhoff.
BEST Hawthorn: Sewell, Mitchell, Franklin, Lewis, Bateman, Brown. Port Adelaide: S Burgoyne, Pearce, P Burgoyne, K Cornes, Gray, Rodan.
INJURIES Guerra (Haw) hamstring.
REPORTS McGlynn (Haw) reported by field umpire M Nicholls for making front-on contact to K Cornes (Port) in the first quarter.
UMPIRES Kennedy, M Nicholls, Wenn.
CROWD 15,682 at Aurora Stadium.

THE UPSHOT
MIGHT happen in the match review panel meeting on Monday. Shaun Burgoyne will be looked at for a crude bump that concussed Hawk midfielder Sam Mitchell. His brother, Peter Burgoyne, might get some scrutiny for collecting Ben McGlynn, who in turn might be sitting uncomfortably for the next few days for a hip and shoulder on Kane Cornes, who had his head down.

TALKING POINT
THE Hawks under Alastair Clarkson do things their own way and their diamond-shaped defensive zone set-up was a dismal failure in the first quarter yesterday as the Power exploited the mismatches and surged to a five-goal lead. Soon, a man-on-man structure was employed and the Hawks conceded only eight more goals.

HOT AND COLD
AS MUCH as he's an excitement machine, it's getting almost boring talking about Lance Franklin. His six goals yesterday kept the Hawks in the match early and effectively tipped the result. But his work ethic as much as anything impressed. Playing slightly up the ground in the last term, he ran and tackled and in time-on drilled a lovely pass to fellow Hawk Mark Williams.