HAWTHORN prime mover Brad Sewell has laughed off suggestions the Hawks won’t welcome a wet AFL grand final today against the Sydney Swans.
The former Newlyn and North Ballarat Rebels player said the forecasted wet conditions will not have a detrimental effect on the Hawks’ chances of claiming an 11th AFL premiership and could have a positive impact on his own game.
“Personally I’m doing a rain dance. I like playing in the wet,” Sewell said following yesterday’s AFL parade through Melbourne.
“There are one or two Sydney players who might be doing the same.
“Overall I don’t think it will suit one side more than the other.”
Sewell’s teammate and captain, Sam Mitchell, said the only weather that would matter in today’s clash was whether or not players did the important things correctly.
Mitchell believes ark-launching conditions predicted for the MCG will be less of a deciding factor than hard work and desperation.
“I don’t think the weather will play too much of a part,” Mitchell said yesterday.
“Grand finals come down to desire, work-rate, physicality and good decision-making.
“All those things are imperative regardless of the weather.”
With rain, hail and low temperatures forecast for today after a strong, steady downpour throughout yesterday, conditions should favour in-and-under types like Mitchell.
But the Swans’ reputation as demons for the contested ball brings them into much closer calculations than if they had played Hawthorn on a hard, fast track.
Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson said both clubs had played in vastly different conditions during the season and would handle whatever they faced today.
“I can probably speak on behalf of both sides,” Clarkson said.
“You play in this game, you play in hot weather, you play in cold weather, you play all sorts of different shaped grounds.
“As long as they’ve got goalposts and you’ve got 22 blokes each, you just prepare to have a crack at each other.
“We know Sydney are tough and hard whether they play in dry conditions or whether in the wet and they know that we’re the same.”
Brad Sewell’s column page 101