Lord Mud of Glenferrie
Club Legend
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- Dec 13, 2008
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Any loss by one straight kick and/or 2 seconds does not indicate that one team was dominant and the other well beaten.
The only mental issue here is that Essendon were on a mission and played with all the emotion they could gather resulting in a desperation that Hawthorn could not match at this stage of the season. However, I don't really believe that mental attitudes decided this game.
One of our strengths over the last couple of years has been our rucking combination.
The loss of Frawley in the first 15 minutes created a snowballing effect that disrupted three key elements of Hawthorn's structure. The ruck and the defensive set up and Roughead's usual role. Lake and Stratten were given an impossible situation where they had to control all of the tall Essendon forwards. It is a credit to both that they did an admirable job and Lake was probably Hawthorns best player. Stratten, who played well, is not tall enough to play on genuine KPFs. So, the backline was now hopelessly undermanned.
To counter the Essendon talls Clarkson was put in the position of having to play a ruck down back. McEvoy was Clarkson's choice. This broke up what has been a very successful combination which has given Hawthorn ruck domination, around the ground marking power and a tall marking option up forward. McEvoy was literally taken out of the game and Ceglar, who is a very inexperienced ruck, does not, at this stage, have the experience or ability to be the sole dominant ruck.
To give Ceglar support Clarkson was forced to put Roughead into the ruck. Thus Roughead's previous key role of a combination of key forward and a big body ruck/rover was now sacrificed.
The loss of Frawley cannot be over stated as a contribution to the defeat.
The last three minute fade out.
To come from over 30 points down and gain a lead of 16 points requires a huge physical effort. At this stage of the season no club is fit enough to maintain that physical effort. The team making the comeback eventually will hit a wall and that is what happened in this game. They simply ran out of puff. Essendon were able to regain the initiative and the rest is history. Of course I acknowledge that Sydney were able to do this last week. The Essendon players had not really played a game of football for six months and as shown this week Sydney are in red hot form. Before running out of puff Essendon showed what they are capable of. Do not underestimate this Essendon team.
Do not underestimate the inexperience of a vital chunk of our midfield. Keep in mind that Langford is still very inexperienced. So two of our best mid fielders out with one being a late withdrawal and two of our best backs out with one being a late withdrawal and the other going down in the first few minutes. A hell of a lot to cover.
The selected replacements of Mitchell and Gibson are puzzling. What it highlighted is that we still lack depth when it matters. This is not restricted to only us but applies to all clubs. What options did Clarkson have in replacing Gibson? Spangher may have been medically fit to play but his conditioning would be very questionable. Schoey has not been a success down back. Playing Sicily seemed to be an unnecessarily luxury. In hindsight there may have been better choices as Mitchell's replacement.
The game still had one big positive. Our 'oldies' are not over the hill. Lake was probably our best, Burgoyne can still do what he always does and Hodge played well for most of the game. Also, Hawthorn may have the recruit of the year in Rioli.
The only mental issue here is that Essendon were on a mission and played with all the emotion they could gather resulting in a desperation that Hawthorn could not match at this stage of the season. However, I don't really believe that mental attitudes decided this game.
One of our strengths over the last couple of years has been our rucking combination.
The loss of Frawley in the first 15 minutes created a snowballing effect that disrupted three key elements of Hawthorn's structure. The ruck and the defensive set up and Roughead's usual role. Lake and Stratten were given an impossible situation where they had to control all of the tall Essendon forwards. It is a credit to both that they did an admirable job and Lake was probably Hawthorns best player. Stratten, who played well, is not tall enough to play on genuine KPFs. So, the backline was now hopelessly undermanned.
To counter the Essendon talls Clarkson was put in the position of having to play a ruck down back. McEvoy was Clarkson's choice. This broke up what has been a very successful combination which has given Hawthorn ruck domination, around the ground marking power and a tall marking option up forward. McEvoy was literally taken out of the game and Ceglar, who is a very inexperienced ruck, does not, at this stage, have the experience or ability to be the sole dominant ruck.
To give Ceglar support Clarkson was forced to put Roughead into the ruck. Thus Roughead's previous key role of a combination of key forward and a big body ruck/rover was now sacrificed.
The loss of Frawley cannot be over stated as a contribution to the defeat.
The last three minute fade out.
To come from over 30 points down and gain a lead of 16 points requires a huge physical effort. At this stage of the season no club is fit enough to maintain that physical effort. The team making the comeback eventually will hit a wall and that is what happened in this game. They simply ran out of puff. Essendon were able to regain the initiative and the rest is history. Of course I acknowledge that Sydney were able to do this last week. The Essendon players had not really played a game of football for six months and as shown this week Sydney are in red hot form. Before running out of puff Essendon showed what they are capable of. Do not underestimate this Essendon team.
Do not underestimate the inexperience of a vital chunk of our midfield. Keep in mind that Langford is still very inexperienced. So two of our best mid fielders out with one being a late withdrawal and two of our best backs out with one being a late withdrawal and the other going down in the first few minutes. A hell of a lot to cover.
The selected replacements of Mitchell and Gibson are puzzling. What it highlighted is that we still lack depth when it matters. This is not restricted to only us but applies to all clubs. What options did Clarkson have in replacing Gibson? Spangher may have been medically fit to play but his conditioning would be very questionable. Schoey has not been a success down back. Playing Sicily seemed to be an unnecessarily luxury. In hindsight there may have been better choices as Mitchell's replacement.
The game still had one big positive. Our 'oldies' are not over the hill. Lake was probably our best, Burgoyne can still do what he always does and Hodge played well for most of the game. Also, Hawthorn may have the recruit of the year in Rioli.
