News Hawthorn in the media 2023

[Strapping Young Lad]

Please don’t bring Barrett’s sliding doors rubbish here. That’s not the Hawthorn footy club in the media.

That’s a desperate article, trying to get clicks every week.

 

[TylerDurden]

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

 

[peetoo]

All the best Sammy

 

[Argy]

That's not good news. Can strike anyone.

 

[Mitchell Madness]

That's not good news. Can strike anyone.

Probably had covid and the coughing has caused it.
I know 3 people who've caught the latest strain and they all ended up with pneumonia.

Then there's my wife and I who both feel like we have pneumonia too (after covid)

 

[Symons]

I'm still in a bad way after a terrible Covid infection 18 months ago. Pneumonia is a common complication after/with Covid. Awful stuff for Sam.

 

[Ram-Man]

Not good. Wishing Sam a speedy recovery.

 

[Fleabane]

I love Weddle's attitude. Very honest about what he wants to achieve and filled with justified/well-earned confidence. Looking forward to seeing him wearing the no 23.

Sorry to hear about Sam. Pneumonia really knocks you around. My husband caught it exactly two weeks after we arrived back from an overseas holiday - the same amount of time we'd been told to monitor for signs of malaria. So with that history when he was admitted the hospital took a while to figure out what he had. Pneumonia was a relief as a diagnosis but he was really sick for a while.

 

[TylerDurden]

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/hawthorn-2024-preview-will-there-be-more-bottomfour-pain-or-do-hawks-begin-climbing-afl-ladder/news-story/4df7f4db5831dc789e21e0d7af7d41ca

 

[FB19]

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/hawthorn-2024-preview-will-there-be-more-bottomfour-pain-or-do-hawks-begin-climbing-afl-ladder/news-story/4df7f4db5831dc789e21e0d7af7d41ca

https://archive.vn/dwbF6

 

[Brant]

https://archive.vn/dwbF6

Reasonable article but horrendous 'Best 23' & some strange queries, such as who or No. 1 Ruck will be.

 

[Tony3163]

Reasonable article but horrendous 'Best 23' & some strange queries, such as who or No. 1 Ruck will be.

And Amon still on the wing.

 

[Topiary]

And Amon still on the wing.

They do not have a clue!! Don’t want to either. I am not concerned at all what the HS is saying.

 

[Mitchell Madness]

And Amon still on the wing.

Actually think we will see him more on a wing this year. I saw glimpses of the rotations last year, and think we will see more of it.
Whilst most teams are rotating their main midfielders, we were rotating the wings too

 

[FB19]

Reasonable article but horrendous 'Best 23' & some strange queries, such as who or No. 1 Ruck will be.

And no CMac.

 

[The Jet From Poowong]

They do not have a clue!! Don’t want to either. I am not concerned at all what the HS is saying.

as if we dont have enough cookie cutter journos at the HS, they go and hire another. Or they must sit the same crap induction.

 

[cs61]

There are quite a few people saying Hawthorn have huge upside and the improvement will happen fast over the next year or two. However it is mostly on radio sites, or independent shows. And interestingly a lot of recently retired or current players saying this too (Steve Johnson, Treloar/Dunkley, Bartel etc). But just as interesting, it is mostly the mainstream papers or FOX etc that have had backhanded, faint praise for us. That Herald Sun article is an example of the latter.

 

[Simon Crawshay]

Reasonable article but horrendous 'Best 23' & some strange queries, such as who or No. 1 Ruck will be.

I think the query over our number 1 Ruck is valid.

I'm still not 100% comfortable that utilizing a pure tap ruckman like Reeves is the go in this day and age.

For me Reeves is the big watch this year, if he doesn't improve his around the ground work I'm thinking Meek might get a decent run at number 1 Ruck.

 

[TheFourPillars]

I think the query over our number 1 Ruck is valid.

I'm still not 100% comfortable that utilizing a pure tap ruckman like Reeves is the go in this day and age.

For me Reeves is the big watch this year, if he doesn't improve his around the ground work I'm thinking Meek might get a decent run at number 1 Ruck.

No chance. The 6 6 6 rule makes Reeves a bonafide weapon.

 

[Simon Crawshay]

No chance. The 6 6 6 rule makes Reeves a bonafide weapon.

Yes out of the square it does but if we don't kick a goal straight from the bounce he becomes a liability around the ground.

Maybe it's a personal bias of mine but I have always really rated mobile, high possession rucks like Cox, Gawn and Brumby.

Even Cegs was good at this (on his day).

And conversely I always thought Nic Nat was massively overrated as he did sweet FA around the ground and apart from the odd hanger only averaged a couple of marks a game.

Personally I would say Reeves needs to at a minimum get his disposal average to 11 and his marking average to 2 to be considered a good AFL ruckman. Those aren't unreasonable expectations given what the likes of English, Gawn, etc produce.

 

[grumbleguts]

They do not have a clue!! Don’t want to either. I am not concerned at all what the HS is saying.

Any one who uses the term "best-cast scenario" has no clue.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

This part of the article is dumb to me.

“There are still plenty of holes to fill: Who is the No. 1 ruck? Who can pair with James Sicily

6

James Sicily

Age

30

Ht

188cm

Wt

90kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

18.3

5star

K

12.7

5star

HB

5.7

4star

M

6.3

5star

T

1.5

3star

MG

365.0

5star

D

19.4

4star

K

14.3

5star

HB

5.1

3star

M

5.9

5star

T

1.0

2star

MG

437.4

5star

D

10.0

3star

K

6.0

3star

HB

4.0

3star

M

4.2

4star

T

2.0

4star

MG

173.8

3star

down back? And with Mitch Lewis up forward? Are there enough classy runners alongside a powerful inside engine room?”

1. Anyone who was paying attention in 2023 knows we have our Number 1 ruck. It’s whether Meek gets a run as well.
2. Sure we tried to get McKay, but it’s not like Blanck and Frost didn’t pair with him all of 2023.
3. Are we just pretending that we didn’t pick up Chol for this exact reason?
4. Anyone who knows a thing about the Hawthorn list would not have this as a query.


I think there’s maybe 1 legitimate question in there, and even then it’s a case of “oh well, Frost or Blanck will have to do for another 12 months if Serong doesn’t come on strong”.

And if someone who writes about AFL and our club doesn’t even know that we’re Brown and GOLD(they’ve edited this since it was published)they just put a big fat “dumby” sign on their head.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

There are quite a few people saying Hawthorn have huge upside and the improvement will happen fast over the next year or two. However it is mostly on radio sites, or independent shows. And interestingly a lot of recently retired or current players saying this too (Steve Johnson, Treloar/Dunkley, Bartel etc). But just as interesting, it is mostly the mainstream papers or FOX etc that have had backhanded, faint praise for us. That Herald Sun article is an example of the latter.

Main board thread “who will rise” with a poll, has us as favourites.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

I think the query over our number 1 Ruck is valid.

Just ignore all available evidence, eh?

 

[Simon Crawshay]

Just ignore all available evidence, eh?

What you mean like the fact our number 1 Ruck averaged 8 disposals and 1.5 marks a game this year?

You are happy with that level of output SYL?

For comparison Gawn averaged similar amount of hitouts whilst also averaging 17 disposals and 4.6 marks a game. That's a huge gap in output.

Or to use a more realistic comparison Witts averaged 10 more hitouts than Reeves as well as 14 dia

The gap between Reeves and Meek isn't that big. If Meek can improve his tap work he will gain quickly.