IN A GAME that rarely reached great heights, one of the biggest talking points from Hawthorn’s 50-point win over West Coast was Andrew McQualter's decision to play Oscar Allen in defence.
The Eagles co-captain has spent his career as a key forward – and he has garnered interest from other clubs looking for a big goalkicker – yet he lined up in the backline at Marvel Stadium on Sunday night.
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The move was made all the more intriguing as it follows a meeting between Allen and Hawks coach Sam Mitchell just four weeks ago.
However, McQualter dodged any suggestion his game plan had anything to do with trying to hide Allen's forward prowess from a potential suitor.
"(It was) his first full game back for a while," McQualter said of Allen, who was 'managed' for last week's loss against Essendon.
"I thought he had some really nice moments, and then some moments where he looked like he hasn't played back for a while, which is to be expected. But I think he was pretty solid."
Asked if it was a positional change the club would persist with, the coach said it could be long term.
"Yep, potentially. We're open to it and we're going to work our way through it with Oscar," he said.
West Coast trailed all game and were only kept in the contest early due to poor finishing from Hawthorn, but McQualter never thought the result was out of the Eagles' reach.
"We sort of gave ourselves a chance with about six minutes to go," he said.
"I think the score was about five goals down, so we pulled a few levers to get a bit more aggressive.
"Unfortunately, we weren't quite efficient enough and they were pretty efficient when they went inside 50.
"The tackle count was low, the tackle efficiency was low, so our fundamentals were a bit off compared to theirs. But I thought we fuelled their game a fair bit, in the first half in particular.
"Credit to Hawthorn for their pressure being high, but there's some opportunity in our game that we could take that away as well."
A late bump by veteran Jeremy McGovern on small Hawks forward Nick Watson could come under MRO scrutiny, but McQualter doesn't believe his All-Australian defender has anything to worry about.
"It didn't seem like there was much in it. They had a little cuddle and a high five and (Watson) got up and finished the game."
Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell said that while he was somewhat surprised by Allen starting deep in the Eagles' back half, he understood the move as McQualter tries to get game time into his inexperienced players.
"Moving Oscar to make sure he can keep all his young talent on the field made sense to us, (but) we were obviously a little bit shocked by it," he said.
Pushed as to whether there may have been other motivations behind the move, Mitchell played a straight bat.
"I'm very much focused on Hawthorn and our season. I won't be looking at what the opposition do, that's up to them.
"We don't play West Coast again so I'm not too concerned about the way they line up."
After a week at VFL level following a slow start to the season, Jack Ginnivan returned to the senior side and performed well, kicking two goals from 17 disposals, but Mitchell acknowledged the small forward's value on return wasn't just about statistics.
"I thought 'Ginni' looked back to his vibrant best," the coach said.
"I saw him do a goal celebration and I probably haven't seen that for a little while, so those little things, I think there was an energy around him."
