By Michael Horan

FOR more than 40 minutes, Hawthorn was as bad as one could imagine and was made to pay for the error of its ways. Against a Melbourne side that sparkled as it dined out on the Hawks' constant butchering of the ball, it was almost comical that going into the 12th minute of the second term the Dees had seven fewer scoring shots and considerably fewer inside-50s, fewer kicks, handballs, tackles and clearances, but still led by three goals. Then came what would be a defining moment from the mercurial Lance Franklin.Wedged on the boundary line on the wrong side for a left-footer - under a giant screen that beamed the Hawks' shamefully wasteful score of 4.15 to that point - Franklin lined up to shoot at goal from about 35m out. Naturally it split the centre and bingo, the Hawks were away. By the time they were done, there was a 45-point win to boast about.

Dean Bailey praises impressive Hawks
By Bruce Matthews

DISAPPOINTED Melbourne coach Dean Bailey last night issued a warning that his team wouldn't be the last to feel the Hawthorn lash this season. Bailey labelled the Hawks a genuine top-four contender after watching helplessly as they transformed a 27-point deficit before halftime into a crushing 45-point win in a lopsided second half at the MCG."We didn't get our hands on the ball. It was all kick-ins and getting the ball out of our defensive 50. We couldn't get the ball out, couldn't get possession change. We would get one possession and they would get the next five," Bailey said."But they're a pretty good team. They're showing all the signs of a top four team. They showed a lot of elements that they're going to take a lot of beating during the year."

The Age

Yip, yip, hooray for Hawks
By Martin Blake

GOAL-KICKING yips threatened to send Hawthorn lurching into an early-season crisis in the first half of yesterday's game against Melbourne at the MCG. But a dynamic third quarter and a 72-point turnaround has the heavily fancied Hawks back on track as a challenger to Collingwood's reign. Al Clarkson's team was 27 points down and butchering the football late in the second quarter despite having dominated play in the first quarter. At quarter-time Hawthorn had 2.8 on the board, and by half-time it was worse (3.13). Nineteen points in arrears at the long break, the Hawks had to dig deep.

Hawthorn gets it half right
By Michael Gleeson

FOOTBALL is an absurd game. It is played with an oval ball that offers no promise of bouncing correctly or flying obediently. Yesterday was an exercise in the absurd. It was so absurd that statistics actually told part of the story: Hawthorn had 46 shots at goal. Twenty-six of them missed the goals but scored behinds. Four more of them missed everything. Melbourne , meanwhile, had almost a third of the shots but, at one point, led the match handsomely by 27 points.

The Australian

Demons smashed by Hawthorn in game of two halves
By Stephen Rielly

AT half-time last night, the MCG was being warmed by a strange first 60 minutes and the sense of trouble brewing. Melbourne, as if kicking for its very survival, led Hawthorn by a little more than three goals when everything but the scoreboard told you Hawthorn ought to have been in front. This was the curious part. The grim element was the creeping prospect of the Hawks opening their season with two losses and becoming the first of the well-regarded sides, with their coach in the final year of his contract, to fall into football's shadowland. And then something less easily understood than the first half arrived in the second: an avalanche from the Hawks that very nearly made what Carlton did to Gold Coast the previous evening look like an act of compassion.