Hawthorn legend Leigh Matthews says the club has blown a premiership chance through a lack of composure.
Warm favourites entering Saturday's grand final, the Hawks dominated clearances and attacking entries and had five more scoring shots but still fell to Sydney 14.7 (91) to 11.15 (81).
Matthews, an eight-time Hawthorn best and fairest and four-time Hawk premiership player, says most statistics suggested Hawthorn should have won and it will be left ruing "the one that got away".
Matthews said the second quarter, when the Swans kicked six goals straight while Hawthorn managed just one behind and sent another shot out on the full, highlighted the key separating factor.
"Normally the stats don't lie," the four-time premiership coach said on the Seven Network's AFL Game Day on Sunday.
"If you dominate the clearances like Hawthorn did, particularly the centre clearances 19-5, therefore you dominate with the ball in attack, you should win the game.
Grandstand commentator Mark McClure says the Hawks should have taken advantage after taking the lead against the underdogs.
"I think they should have won it when they hit the front. They should have powered away," McClure said
Matthews added Sydney's relentless tackling pressure played a role in disrupting the Hawks.
"Why didn't they win the game? The tackling pressure of the Swans was fantastic so that put pressure on the Hawthorn disposal," Matthews said.
"But goals win games. The Swans kicked the goals. Unfortunately Hawthorn kicked a lot of behinds."
The Swans laid a remarkable 109 tackles, 26 more than the Hawks.
But Matthews said even when the Hawks had time, they did not use the ball well enough.
"The composure with the ball under the physical and mental pressure of the game, the Swans had it for more of the game than Hawthorn," Matthews said.
"That's why I thought that Hawthorn blew it.
"I thought they just had very little composure going into their forward line and very little composure when they were generating their shots."
The AFL great also noted a statistical quirk that of the 11 occasions a non-Victorian club has faced a Victorian club in a grand final, the visitors have now won eight.
It contrasts starkly with a record which heavily favours the home team in other finals between sides from different states.
Matthews, who coached Brisbane to their 2001-03 hat-trick of grand final wins, all against Victorian clubs, theorised that non-Victorian sides might benefit in grand final week by avoiding the extreme attention their rivals in Melbourne receive.
AAP/ABC
Tags: sport, australian-football-league, hawthorn-3122, vic, australia, sydney-2000, nsw First posted September 30, 2012 14:04:46