IN a round of upsets and surprises, the biggest was saved until last.

Hawthorn — one of the most dominant sides in recent footy history — now sits on the bottom of the AFL ladder after being demolished by 86 points at the hands of Gold Coast.

The Hawks hadn’t looked great in 2017 before Sunday; but then neither had the Suns. In fact many were calling for the sacking of coach Rodney Eade.

But Gold Coast looked a class above Hawthorn, running all over the threepeaters and leaving them looking old, slow and full of passengers.

Round 18

“They’ve been terrific tonight Gold Coast at keeping the ball rolling,” Fox Footy commentator and former Hawk Ben Dixon said.

“At any stage all the players streaming past, you can see the wave of the Suns players starting at halfback. There’s no time to set up for the Hawks.”

The Hawks were left stunned. Their leading disposal getter was delisted Crow Ricky Henderson; only captain Jarryd Roughead stood up in the forward line with three goals.

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But everywhere else on the ground Alastair Clarkson’s side was beaten by a group that couldn’t get past Brisbane in Round 1 and was demolished by GWS last time out. Luke Hodge had a quiet 20 touches while 13 Suns touched the ball more than that.

And in his big return to Metricon Stadium, the Suns surely wouldn’t have felt too bad about being without Jaeger O’Meara, who recorded 14 touches and went at under 50 per cent efficiency.

“There is definitely a problem with Hawthorn’s leg speed,” Jonathan Brown declared.

“The Hawks have won premierships off the back of their ball movement. Today it’s turnover central.”

“It’s more than that,” Alastair Lynch suggested. “It’s their reaction time to go from an offensive mindset to a defensive structure.”

The biggest winner from the result was probably St Kilda, who own the Hawks’ first round draft pick this year. As it stands the Saints traded pick 10 and 68 for picks 1, 14, 23 and 36; a haul more like the infamous Herschel Walker trade from the NFL.

That’s troubling because Hawthorn is an old side. They came into 2017 as the oldest list in the competition; if this form is truly representative, and they are on the slide, they’re going to need to rebuild. And they’ll be doing that without their top pick.

Of course, Round 3 proved that no-one should be calling anyone’s seasons over just yet. After all, Gold Coast won, not to mention Fremantle and Carlton as well.

But four games ago the Hawks were an Isaac Smith kick away from a preliminary final; now they’re on the bottom of the ladder. And based on what we’ve seen so far in 2017 they might be closer to that than the top.

Re-live the action in our live blog below!