JORDAN Lewis has the ball in his hands and the game in his reach. Final quarter, 25 minutes gone and Hawthorn is a goal ahead. He is 30 metres out and no angle of consequence. His kick fades but it should not matter. Port Adelaide will need to score twice with only seconds remaining.

Amazingly, Hawthorn does not touch the ball again. From the kick-in, Port Adelaide retains possession as it roams across the half-back line, trying as it had all day to find an avenue forward that did not entail two players competing for the ball.

Michael Wilson is forced to run to a loose ball on the flank and absorbs a bump before gathering himself forward and offering the ball to Danyle Pearce, who runs through the wing, bouncing it, before giving it back to Wilson, who finds Daniel Motlop with a searching pass.

It is a pass of perfect deliberation, for there is no other player that should be taking this kick. In similar circumstances only a year ago on the same ground, Motlop had taken a spectacular mark and missed his easy chance to kick the winning goal. A shattered man, it would haunt him afterwards.

So on Saturday evening, in Launceston's settling gloom, Motlop and coach Mark Williams returned to the very same spot to face the very same demons.

"A year ago I got lambasted for talking about forwards who are paid to kick goals who don't do it," Williams said afterwards.

"It was on this ground that Daniel Motlop missed and luckily last night we went back and did a rerun and he kicked it. I was really pleased for him to put us back in the game to kick that goal at the end."

Motlop is a magnificent kick of the football. Earlier in the game he had taken three steps to send a set shot through for a goal from 55 metres. At training he regularly kicks torpedo punts 60 metres, and plays in the pockets at training's end curling banana shots at goal. A hostile crowd and the knowledge of past failures, however, can create far more challenging obstacles.

"It was a little bit less pressure this time — it wasn't five points down or anything — but I just stuck to my routine," Motlop said. "It was in my mind a little bit. A few of the Hawthorn boys were saying it but we were, I don't know, two goals down, so it was less pressure.

"A few of them were saying 'you will miss like last year', that sort of stuff. I ran back and thought there was not long left, but I have to take my time and kick the goal because if I don't kick it, it is going to make it harder."

The ball is back in the centre with 47 seconds remaining. Hawthorn leads by a point.

The ball squirts out to Troy Chaplin running through the middle. He charges forward and kicks long and deep to the goal square. All game, Port Adelaide had barely been able to find a forward.

Warren Tredrea had played like a man who should retire. Justin Westhoff was good early but faded as the game wore. Brett Ebert, barely sighted from beneath Campbell Brown's blanket, is in the goal square when the ball arrives.

"It was a bit surprising that Troy Chaplin came down — he was playing back-pocket at the time and he kicked it and I just thought, 'I will go up and maybe try to spoil it or bring it to the ground', and I was lucky enough to mark it," Ebert said.

A minor score would tie the game. Chad Cornes trots behind Ebert and cautions "30 seconds to go".

"I thought about, I don't want to bring it up again, but Daniel Motlop last year. Same ground against St Kilda," Ebert explained.

"We looked at that during the week as a group, anybody in that situation, if you get one chance to do it, well obviously Mots missed and obviously he was disappointed, but it was good today to kick the goal. I never thought about missing it so that was good."

Port Adelaide had earlier kicked one goal in a half, and had now kicked two goals in a minute. It had stolen it, Williams admitted, but that matters little.

Hawthorn promised lessons had been learnt. In sport, lessons are learnt the hard way. Just ask Daniel Motlop.

PORT ADELAIDE 6.4 6.8 7.11 12.15 (87)
HAWTHORN 4.0 8.4 10.9 12.10 (82)
Goals: Port Adelaide: K Cornes 3 D Motlop 3 S Burgoyne B Ebert B Lade D Pearce S Salopek J Westhoff. Hawthorn: B Dixon 3 J Roughead 3 L Franklin 2 L Hodge J Lewis B McGlynn C Young.
Best: Port Adelaide: K Cornes D Pearce C Cornes P Burgoyne A Thomson T Chaplin. Hawthorn: C Bateman C Young T Croad S Crawford S Mitchell S Gilham.
Umpires: D Goldspink S Meredith M Stevic.
Official Crowd: 15,264 at Aurora Stadium.