Coach Sam Mitchell's direction for the club and 2024 news

[Strapping Young Lad]

If anyone wants to have a listen about what the data is saying in regards to whether we have actually gotten worse this year have a listen to this from the 9:15 mark.

I know a few people have already touched on it, but the data is also showing that our results this year have been slightly better despite actually putting out a younger team and dealing with some injuries.




And here.

 

[Brishawk]

Brishawk, I'd like to think that if a player doesn't think another player is up to it, they'd be able to express what it is that needs to be improved to change that perception.

Having confidence in your team mates, their ability to know where to run or kick should improve naturally the longer the team plays together. That's why it will be a bit painful but should start to bear fruit slowly but surely.

For us, at this moment in our development, we don't have the mature bodies to stem the bleeding but the cliched '50 games' is closer than we think. Along the way, we will have games where we will be 3 goals up at 1/4 time instead of 1 point and that changes the whole mental dynamic of each team.

That third quarter was tough to watch but the first two showed signs of positive development. What has happened during the half time break needs to be assessed as something is going very wrong during those 20 minutes.

We didn’t come out of 1/2 time super cold. The first centre bounce resulted in two consecutive ball ups after.

But what happened was that after we conceded about 3-4 goals in a game our mids became very opponent focused and our defenders stopped being proactive. The lack of confidence in the mids freezes up the defence. They don’t want to take front spot and risk being done over the back. This resulted in many hack kicks forward by the cats getting marked uncontested. We do need to expose players to tough situations and they do need to learn to work their way through it but we can’t sustainable concerned massive runs of goals against without recognising that at some point it’s going to be better to be more competitive than simply bleeding goals and forming bad habits as a side.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

I think its 3rd quarters in isolation. See below from old mate

View attachment 1656544

So unlike that spanner to want harp on about the negative.

 

[FB19]

I was just listening to a podcast with Stirling Morlock and he was talking about the importance of cohesion and how it was so important for him and his teammates we was playing the Brumbies in Super 12. Sometimes he just knew to run as he could see the play developing before it actually had.

Listening to it got me thinking about this very topic and how the Hawks have to stay the course, bring the nucleus of the team up together and allow them to develop together, not (as supporters) bemoan the fact player X is playing over player Y.

Sam thinks he has the nucleus and needs to find the pieces required to have a contending team so there will be changes to peripheral positions but the core of the group shouldn't change unless required. We will know soon enough who that group is and who is surplus or just making up numbers.

I think it is hard to make that case when we don’t have our spine sorted out. I can easily make the case for Lewis FF (albeit risk with injury) and Newk as centreman but we don’t have confirmed players for the 3 other KP spots. We could also use a game changing and / or genuinely quick line breaking midfielder to complement Day Ward Mackenzie and hopefully one of Stephens/Long. That may be Harley Reid this year. Relying on Kozi Jeka Blanck isn’t going to get it done. This year has some good high end prospects and if you look at the best KP players at the moment they are almost all high draft picks. We simply need to get another pick inside 10 this year and fix the KP problem. Both Reid’s plus McCabe would be a good start.

 

[TylerDurden]

 

[Mercy Seat]

Interesting comments by Sam on DGB this morning. Was asked if he’d consider playing him forward and Sam conceded he might do ok there and would help us even this week in the forward line but every decision at the moment is about where each player will play in our next premiership side. It’s all about the long game.

DGB is tracking nicely as a defender and is “not too far away”.

 

[TheFourPillars]

Interesting comments by Sam on DGB this morning. Was asked if he’d consider playing him forward and Sam conceded he might do ok there and would help us even this week in the forward line but every decision at the moment is about where each player will play in our next premiership side. It’s all about the long game.

DGB is tracking nicely as a defender and is “not too far away”.

I mean every decision being made right now should be about the future

 

[TylerDurden]

I mean every decision being made right now should be about the future

As in every decision is based on acquiring Harley Reid, lol.

 

[peetoo]

As in every decision is based on acquiring Harley Reid, lol.

Some afl figures and in media seem genuinely rustled at the thought of Reid going to the hawks

 

[brad sue well]

Don’t know if this has been mentioned…

I think someone said Sam aims for 20 goals a game. 3/4 time of last weeks Box Hill huddle, Littlejohn seems to make a reference to how they may achieve this in the 4th. If body language is anything to go by, motivation really seems to focus in that moment.

 

[MasterSamurai]

Love listening to Leigh!

 

[TylerDurden]

 

[Billyc]

Finn and Kosi late ins for Sicily and Moore after watching ?

 

[peetoo]

So, losses so far against 2 grNd finalists and 2 top 4 teams.

 

[CHUBBSS]

If I combine what I see from the vfl and afl sides, you can see what we are creating and it’s bloody exciting. Our pressure with and without ball is going to be immense.

Our seniors are funnily enough our biggest issue, have been super inconsistent the last few years but once the kids get another year in them they will well and truely take over.

 

[TylerDurden]

We were 18th last year.
Hale working some magic with our mids and rucks.

 

[tommyk72]

Gives me a glimmer of hope against the crows. Need to keep getting first hands on the ball. Then just have to find someone to kick goals!

 

[wahawk]

If I combine what I see from the vfl and afl sides, you can see what we are creating and it’s bloody exciting. Our pressure with and without ball is going to be immense.

Our seniors are funnily enough our biggest issue, have been super inconsistent the last few years but once the kids get another year in them they will well and truely take over.

I get what you are saying but obviously our senior side is going to struggle more with this as they are playing against seasoned senior AFL players.
Massive difference playing AFL to VFL/WAFL/SANFL

 

[The Spirit of Cricket]

d

View attachment 1663870

We were 18th last year.
Hale working some magic with our mids and rucks.

does that site do the ladder for Centre Clearances? I'd be interested to see if there's more of a correlation between CC and performance than there is clearances

 

[TylerDurden]

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/hawthorns-decision-to-trade-out-jaeger-omeara-and-tom-mitchell-has-helped-turn-around-the-engine-room/news-story/ff83ab737d40641a849e209a1fd6d4bb

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/hawthorns-decision-to-trade-out-jaeger-omeara-and-tom-mitchell-has-helped-turn-around-the-engine-room/news-story/ff83ab737d40641a849e209a1fd6d4bb

Paywalled and archive doesn’t open it.

 

[cs61]

Try putting the Australian link into archive:

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/afl/hawthorns-decision-to-trade-out-jaeger-omeara-and-tom-mitchell-has-helped-turn-around-the-engine-room/news-story/ff83ab737d40641a849e209a1fd6d4bb

 

[MrPremiership]

Nice to see the media finally getting it.

As usual, they're 12 months behind the trend

 

[Ned Ryerson]

Nice to see the media finally getting it.

As usual, they're 12 months behind the trend

In fairness there was a good portion of our posters here who were steadfastly against reinventing our midfield by trading out Tom or JOM.

Just lucky our coach knows a thing or two about what a contending midfield looks like.

 

[Sixpence]

It was pretty clear that it needed to happen, don't think anyone expected it to happen this quickly though! Day has been an absolute revelation, always had talent, but to become a midfield beast so quick has been amazing to watch. He and Duke form a very exciting pair. Worpel back to his best and improvements from Nash and Ward.

I do wonder how much of it was due to Harvey leaving? Not convinced he was the right man for it, despite his pedigree. Hale seems to have the midfield working pretty well. Always hard to tell exactly what influence an assistant coach has though.

 

[KermitJagger]

It was pretty clear that it needed to happen, don't think anyone expected it to happen this quickly though! Day has been an absolute revelation, always had talent, but to become a midfield beast so quick has been amazing to watch. He and Duke form a very exciting pair. Worpel back to his best and improvements from Nash and Ward.

I do wonder how much of it was due to Harvey leaving? Not convinced he was the right man for it, despite his pedigree. Hale seems to have the midfield working pretty well. Always hard to tell exactly what influence an assistant coach has though.

Hale being a ruck and our midfield really developing off the back of the ruck / mid connection speaks a bit towards his positive influence.