Autopsy Hawks defeat Dogs elimination final.

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Embarassing, that's what it was and the club and that should burn in the guts of every single player out there tonight. Will it though? I doubt it. They'll get a pat on the back and a hug and it'll all be forgotten. Utter garbage.

A ruthless club, let's say Geelong, would act and make proper changes. We won't because we're gutless and cowardly off field as well.
 
Absolutely this. Treloar was rubbish. Libba looks cooked and God I hope bont was injured
We all know he has some limitations, but tonight was the first time that I’ve genuinely thought that the game has passed by Libba.

Seriously hope that I’m wrong, but he’s always been clean & controlling the ball makes up for his lack of leg speed.

Tonight he was fumbling and then Hawks kids were off to the races each time when they got a sniff of those loose balls, while Libba was left behind.

It didn’t look good.
 

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Their game was won by their sweeping half backs and wings, not by their midfield (after all, we won the clearance count comfortably, and both teams had roughly the same amount of shots per inside 50).

People can disagree but that's the main difference in where the game was won - ability of each team to move the ball. Not the respective forward 50s or stoppages but the I50 differential.

Individual players in our forward line and defence played well and poorly and that sort of balanced each other out.

But our structural ability for our wings and small forwards to structure and pressure up was clearly poor from early in the second.

Gallagher was lost on the wing before he subbed off and left huge holes that were exploited (on top of poor in ball in hand). That was the main selection mistake on top of everything, I've posted plenty of times how silly how many games he has gotten for how poor his season has been.

McNeil was okay in efforts but didn't work well structurally off the others.

Weightman got sucked into hunting the ball once he started poorly, which let their half backs ran riot.

Vandermeer was poorish but it isn't as much his job as the others.

People have already pointed out how poor Harmes was.

This was poor by Bevo who was thoroughly outcoached. One win vs GWS and some poor form shouldn't have cost West's place in the team structurally, who would have done a disciplined role on their rebounding defenders and held his position deep forward, allowing McNeil, Weightman and the others clearer roles. West's discipline and adherence to structure and defensive stuff as allowed Weightman to hunt the ball on instinct this season, but without that for this game, Weightman's roaming left their defenders free

There was one marking contests with our big in the 3rd quarter where the ball got out the back and it would have been perfect for their smalls. Instead, two of their small defenders got behind the contest and won it vs 0 of ours. Compare that to Jones' fresh air spoil in the last where they has 2 forwards to run onto vs ours.

Other than that, Hawks played excellent footy, the kind has made them one of the best teams in the last few months, plus riding the wave of their fans and their home ground and a fearless attituse. It's entirely possible that we could have put one bad game against another top side to the side and still win against other top teams, but I guess we'll never know given we failed to finish top 4.

This has laid bare our weaknesses

Good post.

We have a few obvious list deficiencies, but poor team selection and coaching contributed significantly tonight.

Although if basically all our best/senior players pick the same night to have arguably their worst individual performances of the season then we’re lucky it wasn’t 100+.

I can’t shake the feeling that this team just doesn’t have hard enough standards placed on them. That Jamarra and Weightman can put in some of the efforts they did tonight, whether that was actual effort or like you say presumably disregarding what he should be doing and ball-hunting instead, is an indictment on the culture and leadership. That we have a few AFL-listed players who can barely kick a ball is ludicrous.

We can’t keep doing this in the first week of September and the club chalks it up to experience. It’s negligent.
 
If no one is going to shoot bambi then i will..

Bont, Treloar, Libba, JUH, English, Dale, Weightman and Naughton lost this game for us. 8 of our top 10 players gave us disaster level efforts. Honestly how can this thread still be taken up by comments on McNeil, VDM etc. At least they played to their par. I'd say those two gave much more effort tonight that those 8 players. VDM was creating lots of space in the first half and McNeil went in hard all night. While those two have limited skills at least they gave a shiit. These 8 high profile, highly paid players got beaten up

Our handball game was the worst i've seen for years, due to the defensive quickness and aggression of the hawks. Its one thing having speed, but speed defensively is something we do not have.

I was fine with Harmes playing, only because he was a perfect match up for Sicily. How that can not be an option by the coaches is beyond me. Absolutely no game plan for Sicily was game over right there.

Huge claps for Lobb, Richards, Williams, Daniel and Freijah. JOD was a problem but overall our defense wasn't too bad. They had no chance with the pathetic level of effort given from forwards and mids.
 
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Nah he wasn't injured. It was actually the first thing a mate asked as I was told he looked off. Think the captain just had a shitty game for the first time in YEARS. It was the wrong game for him to be as terrible as he was.
Yeah but he looked good early, as did we, and then spent alot of the second on the bench. That's when they put the gap on us
 
If no one is going to shoot bambi then i will..

Bont, Treloar, Libba, JUH, English, Dale, Weightman and Naughton lost this game for us. 8 of our top 10 players gave us disaster level efforts. Honestly how can this thread still be taken up by comments on McNeil, VDM etc. At least they played to their par. I'd say those two gave much more effort tonight that those 8 players. VDM was creating lots of space in the first half and McNeil went in hard all night. While those two have limited skills at least they gave a shiit. These 8 high profile, highly paid players got beaten up

Our handball game was the worst i've seen for years, due to the defensive quickness and aggression of the hawks. Its one thing having speed, but speed defensively is something we do not have.

I was fine with Harmes playing, only because he was a perfect match up for Sicily. How that can not be an option by the coaches is beyond my me. Absolutely no game plan for Sicily was game over right there.

Huge claps for Lobb, Richards, Williams, Daniel and Freijah. JOD was a problem but overall our defense wasn't too bad. They had no chance with the pathetic level of effort given from forwards and mids.
Nailed it. Thanks for posting that. Everyone else in here please take note.
 
Lobb's performance has understandably been lost given the result but his numbers were unreal tonight...

5 contested marks
6 intercept marks
6 spoils
100% kicking efficiency

Had composure in an uncomposed team. Looking forward to seeing him in an AA blazer next year.
I thought Lobb was easily our best.

With the confidence he has at the moment, I would’ve switched him forward at 3 quarter time.
 

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Oh except for the huge clap for Williams. He was shit too.

So was Richards, not sure how he gets a pass.

Lobb was great. Daniel was OK, and Freijah decent given his youth and the fact almost all of his more senior teammates were playing like they’d never been on a ****ing footy field together before. Everyone else was borderline horrendous.
 
So was Richards, not sure how he gets a pass.

Lobb was great. Daniel was OK, and Freijah decent given his youth and the fact almost all of his more senior teammates were playing like they’d never been on a ****ing footy field together before. Everyone else was borderline horrendous.
Yep. Missed him.
 
Richards started well, then just disappeared. His aggression with Dear near the end when Watson flopped was pure frustration, but unfortunately it’s about the only fight we put up all night
 
Richards wasn't bad per se but has played well on instinct all season and was nervous for such a big crowd (having never really played in front of one in his career). Lots of second guessing, slightly off skill execution and not always taking the best option which is a hit out of character for him.
 
Just got home. What a horror night.

First of all hawks absolutely deserve the win and the scoreboard flattered us. From qt that was as convincing of a belting as you’ll see.

Don’t think I’ve had a less enjoyable game of footy to go to. Hawks fans getting in dogs fans faces, taunting them and starting fights. Don’t know if it was just my section of the crowd but I’ve never experienced anything like that in the afl.

Umpiring. Not sure how it looked on tv but just felt like we couldn’t get anything at all. Are we surprised? The standard all year has been ass.

Christ they’re good. Won’t be shocked if they take the whole thing out. We clearly ****ed up not bringing West to stop Sicily. Newcombe plays like Greg Williams Everytime we play them.

Besides Lobb, Darcy and Daniel there was probably no winners on the night. Just a shocker all round. We made the easy look tough and the tough look impossible.

Keen to see what we can do with a full year of Lobb down back. Top 4 has to be achieved because we’re pissing away the Marcus Bontempelli era.
 
I think the cherry on top of a shit cake was the call to make Macrae sub. Probably our best finals player in the Bevo era. Probably all time. And Harvey ****ing Gallagher got a start over him.

I’m sure Harvey is a nice kid but I’ve never seen someone so out of their depth. He should be developing in the twos.
 
Just to add to some of the observations on the crowd, the Hawthorn fans nearby did seem to be particularly vitriolic (admittedly our seats were fairly close to their cheer squad). Late in the 4th when a few dogs supporters decided to leave early, some Hawthorn fans were jeering at them and encouraging them to "f off".
 
Don’t think I’ve had a less enjoyable game of footy to go to. Hawks fans getting in dogs fans faces, taunting them and starting fights. Don’t know if it was just my section of the crowd but I’ve never experienced anything like that in the afl.
With so many reports of this it must be true. So disappointing to hear, I reckon it's encouraged by the arrogance of the team itself. Taking footy so seriously that you need to start fights over it, is serious loser behavior. Some people need to get a life outside of sports.
 
Just home, after stewing on that 'effort' in the car driving home the last few hours.

Disappointed? Yes

Surprised? Not in the least. Apart from 2016 finals and the semi and prelim in 2021, this club just finds new ways to f*** its supporters.

Yeah, people can excuse Lobb, Freijah, and maybe one or two others if you're really desperate.

Bottom line is 2024 is another fail. No sugar-coating it.

As far as I'm concerned tonight, Beveridge, Bontempelli, Bains, Grant, Watson-Wheeler and all the coaches and players can either take a running jump or go **** themselves.

51 years of giving up my hard-earned well into four figures p.a. to see them dish up that (highly predictable) sh1t - against the SAME opponent, in the SAME manner, with the SAME key players taking us to the cleaners as we've watched on repeat.

F*** off. Just f*** off.

And #44 and #2... f*** me, are you two serious?!

(This is a toned down post on what I was contemplating earlier, maybe should have posted my initial reaction and enjoyed the ban. What a bitter taste to finish the season. A pathetic effort all round.)

Anyway, enjoy spring, summer, Christmas and new year everyone...

(Did I mention how f***ing p1ssed off I am... ?)
 
for all the whack Naughton has gotten this year from the media and our own fans he was the only one that tried to stand up tonight thought he was great in a team that didnt do him any favors

ngl i miss when he was our main forward like in 21-22

Lobb & Naughton our 2 best tonight and it isnt close
Has Naughton copped it? Of our forwards he is one of the few that brings non-negotiable competitiveness.
 

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Autopsy Hawks defeat Dogs elimination final.

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