Hawthorn defender Grant Birchall was like a brick wall across half back against Fremantle. Picture: Ross Marsden Source: The Mercury
LIKE a politician, Grant Birchall has become an expert in the art of deflection.
The more questions that arrow in on his imperious form, the more he talks up Hawthorn's even spread of contributors.
But it was a tough sell for the defender yesterday.
In a game that never reached any great height and was bogged down by mistakes for three quarters, Birchall's run and clinical distribution shone like a beacon.
The Tasmanian racked up 37 disposals, 28 of them uncontested, highlighting his willingness to run and receive from teammates.
More impressively, he barely wasted a single possession.
"Its been a pretty good start to the year, I guess," Birchall said.
"I don't know, I had a really good pre-season, my body is feeling fantastic, I'm fit and healthy and pulling up well each week.
"I'm just trying to improve my game bit by bit and we feel as though we've got a really good mix down back and it's really hard for opposition sides to nullify our run and ball movement down there."
Match: Cyril, Buddy down Dockers
With Luke Hodge returning to the side and Sam Mitchell now spending large chunks of time in defence, the loss of Matt Suckling hasn't seen opposition sides clamp down on Birchall as much as expected.
"With Hodgy and Mitch, they're obviously quality players and there's a lot of run and rebound in the back half, so I guess it's pretty hard to stop us all running off down there," Birchall said.
Fremantle coach Ross Lyon admitted Birchall had got off the chain in the first quarter, but said he was assigned an opponent for the majority of the next three quarters.
Clearly, it wasn't enough.
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