Autopsy Round 2, 2025: Hawthorn give Carlton the Blues

[oscarthegrouch]

Finn not as good ball in hand as last couple of weeks but his strength to stand up in a tackle during scrappy moment I50 create such crucial goals.

Also thought Harry's best asset was on show today. Great footy intelligence and reliability. Was in the right space in the right moments defensively and completely neutered Acres.

Finns always been terrible with the ball. At vfl level too. Always around the 60% de mark

 

[Ned Ryerson]

3 games now and 3 team wins. The spread of effort is immense - there is no handful of players getting us over the line - each week it’s hard to pick a bottom 6 because even players whose stat line might not look impressive still played their role and did what they had to when their time came. Was an immensely frustrating win at times tonight but early in the season is when you want to win ugly - I want to be dismantling teams come September.

There’s a will to win at the club right now that makes the rebuild years worth every bit of patience.

 

[PorkPieHat]

Great win in the end. Showed great resilience to keep working when not at our best. Our class shines through when it matters. How good is it having the 2 new pillars down back. I feel confident every time the ball goes in to them.

I love this terminology - the 2 pillars. Every time I’ve seen a long bomb to our defence this year I’ve had this smug ‘meh’ moment (coupled with calm curiosity in what the newcomers will do). I think how crippling it would be to have Scrimshaw out without them (no versatility allowed).

 

[Judd2Sewell]

That passage of play that lead to our last goal was amazing - Battle had a great defensive effort and great awareness to flick the ball out to CJ.

Then the kick from D'Ambrosio was the epitome of elite; hemmed in on the boundary with no room to move and still managed to lazer a kick into space for Day. He did the several times last season too. I can't think of many other players in the league the could pull that off.

 

[kazzooka]

3 votes in the bag.

I reckon TDK will feature, and there are several options for the final vote.

Haha, no chance Cripps doesn't get the 3 votes. Umps would give him 6 if they could.


Cripps 3. TDK 2. 1. Silvagni

 

[JRH]

There was players tonight that played well however I think Chol, ward, Mackenzie and H played their best games yet. This is what will separate us from the rest!

 

[reubski23]

I was quite worried after last weeks game - i felt that not only did we not play that well except for about 8 minutes of football where we kicked 5(?) goals but we had a few calls in important moments go our way and we were good enough to score a quick goal when the Bombers were getting momentum; but I was worried about not having enough A grade players and that we will be not good enough to win it this year.

Today was huge - Carlton were always going to play a hard contested style of football they have way too many gun players to not come back hard from last weeks complete collapse in the second half (I am still trying to think of a bigger upset).

Not only did we withstand it; we actually got beaten by them in the second quarter for a good period of time and then we fought hard across the board; and then once we caught up we kept coming and then i felt we really controlled basically the entirety of the second half.

Which shows me there is no doubt in my mind that Sammy is one of the smartest minds in football, that we absolutely do have enough A grade talent, depth and game plan to give our 14th(?) premiership a crack this year.

Key Players for me today (without looking at any stats):

1. Battle - how good what a great pick up
2. DeAmbrosio - thought he was always making a big play in the big moments
3. Mackenzie - I will keep saying it if he becomes a 25-35 disposal getter we will be very hard to stop for a number of years - he reminds me of Tom Brady and Sam Mitchell in his ability to create space, time and highly accurate plays under immense pressure despite a lack of any sort of pace

 

[Snakelilbandit]

Cam Mackenzie is insane

Just keeps looking more and more like a young Sam Mitchell.

Sent from my CPH2343 using Tapatalk

 

[lethalselbow]

KARLton fans spitting chips over umpiring, on the radio. I thought that hawks got the wrong end of things, at the ground.

Replay will be interesting.

 

[ImCheatingToWin]

Chol: 11 disposals - 4 marks (2 contested) - 3 goals - 1 behind

View attachment 2255925

Huge patch in the third
Put the ball down Gunston's throat
Then his really smart play set up Ward's goal
Then nailed one himself

 

[AlwaysHawks15]

Great all over contribution, won it the hard way through pressure and didn't allow Carlton to play on their terms. Wrestle that game right back with effort. Solid sign we've went to another level, I don't think we could produce 4 quarters like that last year.

Great to CJ back, Mackenzie and Ward are building.
Anything Watson touches turns to gold.
I know the commentators thought Cripps was the only mid on the ground but Newcombe was BOG.

Newk was huge at killing momentum for them all night. He lifted a gear when they were leading than when they kept coming back he kept winning crucial clearances. Stepped up immensely in Worp's absence. Thought TDK in hindsight had an overrated game. Not a huge fan of just grabbing the ball out of the ruck and scrambling a kick anywhere and that happened alot. Bit like Xerri from Norf. Meek had a better 2nd half than Tom IMO

 

[Dewnior]

P Cripps..... 3 votes

 

[pd_89]

Positives from the game:

• Chol was absolutely immense. The last two weeks, not only is he impacting the packs but he's now also clunking his marks and kicking goals.
• Watson is proving once again that he needs little of the ball to cause damage - there's a real Cyril vibe to the way he goes about this business.
• Newcombe and Mackenzie stepped up huge in the second half.
• I said this previously during the game but thought CJ lacked a bit of crisp across halfback early on but the bloke honestly never stopped running and when you refuse to be outwork, eventually everything else will fall into place as his skill work improved significantly second half.
• Barass and Battle once again, what a defensive partnership.
• Ward has slotted in seemlessly for Worpel. Once again, ran himself into the ground and kicked an important goal.

Improvement areas:

• Meek was thoroughly beaten by TDK. However, TDK is a class player though and Meek never stopped competing.
• Moorey had an unusually quieter night but good to see us bank the win when his influence is curbed.
• Croc's injury.

 

[birch]

3 games and each time the general consensus is the oppo played well or at least competed hard.
To come away with 3 reasonably comfortable wins while knowing we have many gears left is huge

 

[RX Hawk]

Being 3-0 half way through the horror six week opening stretch is huge. GWS (H) Port (A) and Geelong (A) to come. The injury list keeps piling up with every game also (Worpel, Scrimshaw, Macdonald all significant losses). If we can get to Rd.7 4-2 or 5-1 I will be thrilled.

Scrimshaw and Worpel will be back for Cats. That would be great if we can win against Cats.

 

[seysearles]

I think Dambrossio's new nickname has to be "The Butter Knife"

 

[kazzooka]

Looks nice playing pretty and flogging sides, these games are $$$ in the bank for when we need them later in the season . Or a very high pressure final eg Port last season .
We can win different ways now .
If its not on our terms- we still can win.

Teams are hunting us and we are standing up so far . Sometimes it ain't pretty but it's pro sports and you need ways to win.

I'm still staggered how far this team and group has come since this time last season. Nothing short of extraordinary.

On a separate note after that game the Saints will offer TDK 25mill over 15 seasons .

And if he says yes they'll be dumb enough to keep Marshall too. TDK is a very good player, but if you have a top ruckman you don't go for him. It's Melbourne Grundy/gawn. Freo Jackson/Darcy all over again.

1 very good ruckman and capable depth is what you need. It's a bonus to have a top line ruck, it is foolish to have 2.

 

[reubski23]

P Cripps..... 3 votes

I know its a lot of fun to talk about the perceived umpire love fest for Cripps. I do think their love for him is largely justified - he is absolute gun player - his impact and effectiveness is pretty immense much more so than Judd when he played for Carlton (him winning the 2010 brownlow when players like Hodge and Swan had way better years kills me).

Anyway if Carlton lose any of Weitering, Cripps or TDK they are absolutely ****ed.. more than they might already be

 

[AlwaysHawks15]

KARLton fans spitting chips over umpiring, on the radio. I thought that hawks got the wrong end of things, at the ground.

Replay will be interesting.

Lmao which free kicks were they upset about, they dropped the ball all night and never got pinged for it. They should have given away at least 2 50m penalties. Pretty sure TDK was shoving Meek in the back in the ruck too all that is ok according to them. The CJ spoil which was paid a free ( complete milking by Curnow etc. the ones that had me laughing at their cluelessness were the Moore push in the back on the wing ( he rode him into the ground free kick everyday of the week) and the CJ one where Kemp grabbed a hold of him without the ball and for some reason that caused an eruption from them. We shouldn't have nearly lost that 2 on 1 in the 1st place but it was still a free kick. There was hardly any we received that wasn't a free kick, absolutely laughable.

 

[pd_89]

3 games and each time the general consensus is the oppo played well or at least competed hard.
To come away with 3 reasonably comfortable wins while knowing we have many gears left is huge

Let them take these moral victories. We'll take the 4 points.

 

[VandoHawk]

KARLton fans spitting chips over umpiring, on the radio. I thought that hawks got the wrong end of things, at the ground.

Replay will be interesting.

We did get the rub of the green overall. However, our pressure rating was over 220 for most of the game. I would argue when you’re applying that much pressure you should be rewarded.

Blues got 5 goals from frees, we received similar.

I’ve heard them complain about the overturned goals but…that’s the point of the system. It would have given them three goals they didn’t kick.

 

[kazzooka]

Being 3-0 half way through the horror six week opening stretch is huge. GWS (H) Port (A) and Geelong (A) to come. The injury list keeps piling up with every game also (Worpel, Scrimshaw, Macdonald all significant losses). If we can get to Rd.7 4-2 or 5-1 I will be thrilled.

Just need to be 4-4 by round 8.

Then the last 2, 8 game blocks you want 6-2 or better. That'll be 16 wins and top 4.

If you start 8 - 0 everyone is picking you apart. If you just hover between 2-6 all year and fly under the radar a bit so the top 2 sides get all the heat. Then have a good last 3 games to sew up 1st or 2nd.

Or go undefeated all year.

 

[Bedi]

interesting to hear we had 19 players on the ground at one stage. Glad Carlton didn't call for a player count! Though at least it wasn't actually in play, however, so didn't get an advantage and will prob be just a fine

 

[AlwaysHawks15]

Mackenzie and Ward really emerging. Battle was huge, flogged Curnow. We are going at about 75% capacity so 3-0 is a great start!

Blues got most of their scores from either free kicks or ground ball situations, we absolutely killed them in the air, only bloke who caused a few issues was SOS. Battle is an upgrade on Frost by so much it isn't funny and tonight we saw why and I'm not thinking less of Frost by saying it. Not only does he negate but he's an offensive weapon with great skills. He reminds me of Mew or Langford especially in the number 24. Curnow was clueless what to do which is why he ended up wandering around up the ground half the night. Could also be because he was underdone and probably should have played a VFL game to get conditioning into his body knowing he's not much chop not at full capacity. Good on Vossy for making that call.

 

[CaptainWorpedo]

Poor old CJ smothered Cripps kick with his groin… I wondered why he looked like he was down and OUT