A thirteen goal to five burst from minor premier Box Hill was the difference in Saturday’s First Qualifying Final, Footscray eventually going down by 40 points to the Hawks at Box Hill City Oval.
 
Despite Tom Campbell and Tom Boyd being late withdrawals, the inexperienced Bulldogs came out firing, kicking the first four goals of the match, the lead getting out to 27-points late in the first term before the home side pegged two back late.
 
Box Hill then shifted gears, piling on six second quarter goals and would never again relinquish the lead.
 
Hawthorn listed players Billy Hartung, Brendan Whitecross and Jonathan Simpkin were influential for the Hawks and Dallas Willsmore kicked five goals, including three in the pivotal second term.
 
Successive goals from Lin Jong and Will Hayes late in the third cut the lead to just 24 to give the dogs some hope, but two Box Hill goals to close out the quarter all but iced it for Box Hill.
 
Footscray coach Ashley Hansen said his side executed well early, but the young Dogs didn’t have the ability to sustain it against the experienced Hawks.
 
“With youth comes inconsistency and that was the tale of today.  We had some excellent patches but we couldn’t maintain it against a pretty experienced outfit," Hansen said.
 
“Our good work was undone by some fundamentals of the game that weren’t up to finals standard but it’s only one week in a month long finals series, so we’ll move on quickly and absorb the lessons learnt today.”
 
Lin Jong was named best on ground for Footscray, and the Hayes brothers were lively across the afternoon, Will kicking four goals to continue his excellent run of form and brother JD playing his best game yet in the red, white and blue.
 
An obviously disappointed Hansen said that while he does expect a more experienced side to run out next week, there was plenty of positives to be take from the loss.
 
“It’s so exciting for the club to have so many young first year players playing in a finals game,” he said.
 
"They’re going to learn so much from that and it’s going to set us up for the next couple of years.”
 
Footscray will play the winner of Sunday’s Elimination Final between Essendon and the Casey Scorpions next weekend at North Port Oval.
 
 
Footscray        4.3   5.4   9.7  12.8    (80)
Box Hill           2.2   8.5   15.7 18.12 (120)
 
 
Best: Jong, W.Hayes, Minson, JD. Hayes, Dale, Prismall
Goals: Hayes 4, Jong 2, Cordy, Prismall, Jamieson, Buchannan, Russell, Hannan