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Full Noise by SN
The Live Sport Bible is here!How “chaotic” Wharfie Time rattled the Hawks
Andrew Slevison • May 15th, 2026 2:58 pm
Wharfie Time completely rattled Hawthorn in their Round 9 loss to Fremantle at Optus Stadium.
Freo fans went into overdrive when the Wharfie Time siren sounded, helping the Dockers boot a bevy of late goals which saw them get up by 15 points in Perth.
Star Hawk Dylan Moore admits he and his teammates were taken aback by just how chaotic and crazy things turned when Wharfie Time kicked off.
“It was pretty chaotic, especially when they go into Wharfie Time,” Moore said on SEN’s The Run Home.
“The siren starts going and the crowd starts yelling. Even their players start getting up and about, and you’re thinking ‘what’s going on here?’.
“It was actually quite distracting, and with elite sport as soon as you get a little bit distracted or a bit cautious you stop playing your way.”
Coach Sam Mitchell’s review showed how the Hawks were at times unable to cope with the perceived pressure applied by the home team.
“We’ve got some beautiful kicks and a lot of elite runners who are willing to take the game on, take a bounce and use the open side of the ground,” Moore continued.
“When you’re under more pressure or stress out there you don’t see those options.
“You look in review and he’s 20 metres away and so open, but on the day you’re like ‘Oh, I didn’t think he was’.
“The fear of making a mistake cost us in the end. That’s what Sam said on the Monday, we need to keep taking the game on.”
Moore was none the wiser regarding Freo’s tradition which he feels gave the Dockers a clear advantage that he and his teammates simply couldn’t deal with.
He also says the Hawks haven’t been as ruthless as they should have been recently, almost coughing up the Round 6 clash with Port Adelaide before they were run over by Freo.
“I had no idea what Wharfie Time was until the siren started going,” Moore added.
“We were looking around like, ‘What is going on out here?’. Tip off to them, that was actually a competitive advantage for them.
“We actually spoke about it as well. Sam said, ‘If we want to be the best team in the competition we’ve got to become a bit more ruthless with the game style’.
“We can’t have teams having three or four goals down on us because they have the potential to feel like if they kick one or two then they’re on.
“Then Wharfie Time comes on and they kick five in a row. But even without Wharfie Time, we played Port Adelaide five weeks ago and were five goals up, and we weren’t ruthless enough.”
With every cloud there is a silver lining and for the Hawks that came in the form of experiencing Wharfie Time.
Who knows, they might be back at Optus against Freo later this year.
“We’re probably going to have to play them again in finals, we might have to play them over there. Thankfully we’ve experienced Wharfie Time already because we’re already prepared for it,” Moore concluded.
The Hawks will be intent on bouncing back from last weekend’s defeat when they meet Melbourne at the MCG on Saturday.
There will be a crowd activation at the 'G, less hostile than Wharfie Time, featuring the 'Pickett Pocket' for cousins Kozzy and Latrelle, while Nick Watson will be the centrepiece of the 'Wizard Bay' accompanied by wizard hats aplenty.
Gun forward Jack Gunston (foot), key defender Tom Barrass (hamstring), Conor Nash (concussion) and Sam Butler (omitted) go out of the team to face the Dees, with Henry Hustwaite, Calsher Dear, Harry Morrison and Finn Maginness the ins.
