A lot of Hawthorn's success in 2018 has come off the back of Tom Mitchell's midfield masterclasses, but when the Hawks smashed the Demons in round four, the Brownlow Medal favourite was relatively quiet.

Mitchell only had 24 disposals in the 67-point win, although 13 of those were clearances. That came after his scarily dominant 54, 40 and 41-disposal efforts in the first three rounds of 2018.

Liam Shiels and Jaegar O'Meara did most of the damage for the Hawks in round four, while Jarman Impey, Luke Breust and Isaac Smith continually cut through Melbourne's porous team defence with their run. The Dees were so bad that afternoon that they lost heavily despite the Hawks missing Cyril Rioli and Paul Puopolo for most of the game due to injury.

Melbourne's Nathan Jones went head-to-head with Mitchell for most of the day and did a pretty good job considering how poorly his side performed, but since then the Demons have been buoyed by the emergence of James Harmes as a distinguished stopper.

Harmes has quelled the likes of Luke Shuey, Sydney's Josh Kennedy and most recently Joel Selwood this season. He kept Selwood to 16 disposals in round 18 and a low-impact 25 disposals in last Friday's elimination final.