The rookie forward was cerebral around the centre clearances in the absence of ruck-duo Daniel Gorringe and Tom Nicholls, feeding his on-ballers with pitch perfect hit-outs from the opening bounce.
But while his efforts around the centre circle were certainly impressive, it was his dangerous presence around goals secured the best-on-ground honours for the exciting 22-year-old be, setting up a multitude of teammates inside-50 before booting five majors of his own for the afternoon.
While Hall continues to show he has the makings to become a bonafide scoring threat in the AFL, it was his leadership on Saturday that had Hart most impressed.
“We asked him to captain against the Lions because he was going to take the first ruck, and while most of the time it’s just about tossing the coin, he really went above and beyond to provide leadership and responsibility for the rest of the playing group,” Hart said.
“It was probably the best game of football that I’ve seen from him.”
Speaking to goldcoastfc.com.au immediately after the match, Hall said it was great to continue the strong form that saw rewarded with representative honours for the NEAFL northern conference team in the interstate friendly against SANFL in Adelaide last month.
But while a spot in the seniors is always top of mind for the North Queensland product, Hall said his sole focus was building on his development and playing consistent football for his team.
“It was great to get a run through the ruck, but also be able to impact the scoreboard,” Hall said.
“I’ll definitely take a lot of confidence away from the match, and hopefully I can just continue to build on my hard work and show that I’m ready to perform at the elite level when called upon.”
With an injury cloud looming over Brandon Matera, who was forced to exit mid-way through the third quarter against Geelong after going down with an ankle injury suffered before half-time, Hart believed the apple was not far off the tree for Hall - who might get his chance to shine under McKenna a lot sooner than he might think.
“He was stiff to miss out last week but he’s certainly on the cusp of senior selection,” he said.
“There was Timmy Sumner, Liam Patrick and Hall and the decision was made to go with Sumner – so he was stiff to miss out, but he’s showed us he’s capable of taking the strong mark up forward … he’s been able to add different strings to his bow and certainly isn’t too far away.”
