Preview Round 3, 2022: Blues v Hawks, 1:10pm Sunday 3rd April, MCG

[Topiary]

A fair assessment if a little on the negative side. Better to be 2-0, than 0-2. Of course we have a lot of work to do and each week will not present like it did on Saturday.

 

[The Spirit of Cricket]

Hawthorn is on top of the ladder. Carlton are strutting about arrogantly. Richmond is In 9th position.

You wanted normalcy back after a global pandemic?

I give you the AFL ladder.

thanks bro appreciate your work

 

[daniel23]

The finn on walsh calls I dont mind . He hasn't won much of the ball both rounds and looked a nervous when he has but his defensive running has been as good as anyone.

 

[Brishawk]

Shows the heavy lifting our defence is doing. Working wonderfully as a team.

The next step is getting those numbers down as we improve in the middle and limit how much the ball gets into our defence.

Slight correction, it is showing the heavy lifting the half back line is doing. Our deeper defenders aren’t getting as many intercept possessions, which is a key factor in why we can rebound quickly. Win the ball back higher up the field and you have much more space to rebound into than deep in defensive fifty.

 

[burner1]

Difference this week is that blues have some decent talls who will score if given enough inside 50s. McKay/Curnow is a step up from georgiadis and Finlayson. Also don’t expect Carlton to give us so much space.

Finn seemed to be playing on Motlop then Powell-pepper. He may lock down on their best small/mid sized forward (maybe Jack Martin

19

Jack Martin

Age

29

Ht

186cm

Wt

82kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

16.2

4star

K

10.0

4star

HB

6.3

4star

M

4.9

5star

T

3.7

5star

G

0.9

4star

D

14.9

4star

K

7.9

3star

HB

7.0

4star

M

4.3

4star

T

3.6

4star

G

1.1

5star

D

8.2

2star

K

4.6

2star

HB

3.6

3star

M

1.8

2star

T

2.0

4star

G

0.6

3star

if he plays?). I do wonder if we are using his defensive running to cover holes from our more attacking defenders or mids running forward more aggressively.

 

[MinerBoy]

I was so impressed with Reeves over the weekend! He is 100% looking like a ruckman compared to well.. even months ago.

Reeves is coming along just nicely. No need to change there at all

 

[burner1]

Slight correction, it is showing the heavy lifting the half back line is doing. Our deeper defenders aren’t getting as many intercept possessions, which is a key factor in why we can rebound quickly. Win the ball back higher up the field and you have much more space to rebound into than deep in defensive fifty.

While we are getting beaten in clearences our defensive pressure around the ball is generally good. Not many easy/clean clearances or fast/deep entries (which has been an issue in previous years). Let’s see how defence holds up if opposition is transitioning ball quickly/cleanly or kicking to more 1-on-1s. (ie first quarter vs north we looked very shaky).

 

[Brishawk]

While we are getting beaten in clearences our defensive pressure around the ball is generally good. Not many easy/clean clearances or fast/deep entries (which has been an issue in previous years). Let’s see how defence holds up if opposition is transitioning ball quickly/cleanly or kicking to more 1-on-1s. (ie first quarter vs north we looked very shaky).

Yeah it is all built on midfield pressure. If that drops off we will get toasted in transition as we play less defenders. But we are running more through the middle so at this stage we appear better equipped to maintain the rage than we were last year. Still need to use the ball well on the counter or we can expect to concede goals in that way too. We will know how we are going once teams figure out how to cut off our exits from defence better.

 

[daniel23]

We can get them on the outside If we can win enough ball, their mids are all slow outside of walsh . Containing their fwds is the issue but In a strange way we match up alot better then the dogs did against them.

 

[Hawksboy72]

Should swap us for Melbourne v Scum game on Friday night


Yep those are the matchups I feel comfortable with.

Nash v Cripps?

A big yes for Nash to take Cripps.
Every time he gets the ball dump his arse.

 

[Big Hotdog]

You mean for Wingard? I’d have them both come in a leave someone out- probably Maginess. Plenty of time still for him.

Yeah for Wingard. I cant a see a like for like that is ready for the call up.

 

[Hawksboy72]

Our current % is 170 odd, from here it shouldn't fall below 100 at seasons end.

 

[SammyC]

I think Phillips in the 22 to play a mid fwd role in place of wingard. Did ok in that role late last year.

Day in, probably for Finn. Unless one of ward or McDonald needs a break.

Bit of a reshuffle required to accommodate day - probably some changes to rotations through the back / wing but we need to find a way to make them all fit.

DGB needs to play, he started to look more at home 2nd half last week. Some fwds will get a hold of him this year but think it’s all part of him developing more defensively to release Sicily, Jiath, scrim and day to be more offensive.

 

[Roger Rogerson]

The finn on walsh calls I dont mind . He hasn't won much of the ball both rounds and looked a nervous when he has but his defensive running has been as good as anyone.

Its a good week to look at our selection policy. Shiels is the perfect player to come in and blanket Walsh. But does Finn get the gig with an eye to the future?

 

[MrPremiership]

Would have taken 2-1 after Round 3 if you asked during pre-season.....


So no pressure on this game....good measuring stick for the young lads

 

[Mojo]

Would have taken 2-1 after Round 3 if you asked during pre-season.....


So no pressure on this game....good measuring stick for the young lads

No no. No need for that negativity. It's 22-0 from here and on.

 

[TylerDurden]

 

[Judd2Sewell]

Our midfield rotations in the first two rounds have included - Mitchell, JOM, Worpel, Ward, Nash, Newcombe. CBA's:

Mitchell - 33/52 (individually: 14/23, 19/29)
JOM - 32/52 (individually: 15/23, 17/29)
Worpel - 30/52 (individually: 11/23, 19/29)
Ward - 25/52 (individually: 11/23, 14/29)
Newcombe - 20/52 (individually: 10/23, 10/29)
Nash - 16/52 (individually: 8**/23, 8/29)

**Inc. two as a ruck

Hewett - 51/62 (individually: 22/29, 29/33)
Cripps - 49/62 (individually: 22/29, 27/33)
Kennedy - 43/62 (individually: 22/29, 21/33)
Cerra - 21/29
Walsh - 17/33
Fisher - 3/33
Setterfield - 1/33

Amazingly Carlton only used four centre midfielders for the entire first round, and four predominantly for round two. With both Cerra and Walsh back though they will at least now have five players rotating through.

Whereas we clearly have a heavier rotation through there. Hopefully we can exploit that somehow.

Anyway for sure Hewett will go to Mitchell.

Cripps, Kennedy, Cerra and Walsh, will need to be matched by JOM, Worpel, Nash, Ward and Newcombe. And they most certainly have the edge over us there.

We will need to somehow keep Doc, Newman, Williams and Saad all accountable. All four are very good rebounders and are nice kicks.

 

[hawkguru]

You'd think that one of day or cj will spend some time on the wing eventually now that our backline is stacked particularly with impey coming back in soon

 

[H00t]

Slight correction, it is showing the heavy lifting the half back line is doing. Our deeper defenders aren’t getting as many intercept possessions, which is a key factor in why we can rebound quickly. Win the ball back higher up the field and you have much more space to rebound into than deep in defensive fifty.

I feel we’ve gone the opposite though. At least compared to the last few years. Instead of trying to get our intercepts as far up the ground by pressing up we’ve kept our defenders very deep.

As such our defenders are winning the ball back inside 50 which is partly why we’ve lost the inside 50 counts in both games. I feel there’s been a lot of intercepts in that 20-40 metres out from goal. Especially by Frost and CJ.

But the plus side is by not pressing up they have a lot more free options when moving the ball rather than a mass of players in front of them.

 

[cryptor]

Whereas we clearly have a heavier rotation through there. Hopefully we can exploit that somehow.

I think we need to just wear them down physically in the contest and run them off their feet by rotating through our variety of mids (easier said than done given they've got some beast athletes). As long as we don't allow them to dominate early while they're fresh we should be able to beat them through endurance, or at least force their hand to rotate others through there to match our numbers.

 

[Sturty]

Surely we don't risk him

 

[Bugs1977]

Let's go!

 

[cryptor]

Surely we don't risk him

"Minimal damage" sounds like there's some amount of damage. And that sounds like it could be the beginnings for something more serious.

It's still early in the week so maybe it will be 100% by Sunday, but I hope we don't risk him in round 3 when we've pretty much got an entire healthy list to select from.

 

[CaptainWorpedo]

Check out the Blues board on big footy Hawks V Blues, talk about cocky!

They seem to forget they have been down the bottom of the ladder for the last 20 years.

Come on Hawkas, bring ya best and please bring home the win