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Not many teams feel the full force of the Orange Tsunami and live to tell the tale. Hawthorn did – and it wasn’t their Hollywood Hawks who saved them, but their off-Broadway extras.

Those who consume their footy in bite-sized mini-match form will have come away from Hawthorn’s latest September success thinking Flash Harrys like Jack Ginnivan and Connor Macdonald were the heroes.

Both were pivotal to the Hawks’ dominance in the first two-thirds of the game but when they needed rescuing from the Giants’ surge it was one of the club’s less celebrated foot soldiers who answered the call.

Hardwick is a name that has become synonymous with finals – but not Blake Hardwick, a fine but no-frills player who only the more knowledgeable Hawks fans would recognise in his civvies on the stre

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