Hawthorn v Bulldogs Review

[superstar]

Well that was rubbish. Schwab-esque.

What we showed today is that we are most definitely a bottom 4 side for one simple reason: we have absolutely ZERO depth. The late withdrawl of Bateman (big loss today), Taylor and Thurgood meant that we had a 22 comprising Jacobs, Sewell, Greene, Ries, Holland. 5 players that are flat out not AFL standard. And then we had plenty of others playing like they weren't.

The Bulldogs had four injured players on the bench and the 22 point defeat still flattered us. With the exception of maybe half a dozen, today was unacceptable.

With three wins in the first half of the season (having played pretty well for most of it), priority picks are a genuine possibility given our recent form and the tough month ahead.


Everitt - Heaps of hitouts, very little influence. Had he converted a couple of scoring opportunities he may have fared better but far from his best game. Little influence and presence around the ground. 5/10

Holland - Started well and gave a tall marking target. Faded just as quickly. 3/10

Hay - Gives away more stupid free kicks than any full back going around, but on the whole he was one of our better players today (though that is saying alot) 5/10

Mitchell - Master vs Apprentice today and Mitchell was thoroughly thrashed by Scotty West. Tried his guts out as always but very ineffective. 3/10

Williams - Superstar. Kicked 6 with some of the worst delivery imaginable and three Bulldogs teaming him on many occassions. Absolute, out and out star. 9/10

Osborne - Rubbish performance. He's quick, has aggro and can use the footy. Has all the tools to be a good back pocket but fails to put it together far too often. 2/10

Jacobs - Ordinary. Contributed little. 3/10

Crawford - Apparently he was crook during the week. It showed. Very poor outing. 2/10

Smith - Diabolical. The worst 24 possession game i've seen. If we had anything worthwhile at Box Hill i'd drop him. Instead, I say we send forward. 1/10

Hodge - Very good. Won a stack of clearances (very important given Mitchell's quiet day), used it well and was the only bloke prepared to kick it long to a goal scoring machine at full forward. Kept us in it. 7/10

Ries - VFL. For life. 1/10

Brennan - Didn't have much impact. Kicked a late goal. 2/10

Ladson - Thought he was decent after half time. 5/10

Dixon - He's back. 0/10

Vandenberg - Worked hard for little reward. His skills didn't stand out so much today, which tells you how his teammates were going. 5/10

Croad - Poor. He's got runs on the board this year but that was a day to forget. Some real brain fades and poor skills errors. Big challenge next week on Riewoldt. 2/10

Clarke - Had a dip but didn't play a huge role in the game. 3/10

Sewell - Just not AFL standard. 1/10

Greene - See above. 1/10

Brown - I knew he'd bounce back after last week. Has played 10 good games this year. Tough, hard and runs in straight lines. 6/10

Franklin - It's not going to be easy for him if his senior teammates play like they did today too often. Looking a little lost right now. 2/10

Lewis - Very encouraging. Reminds me of Scott Burns (with a few screws loose). He'll be a player. 6/10

 

[Nightwolf]

Disagree with Hay and Frankin.

Hay was a 7/10
Franklin i thought was pretty good. Just needs to hold a few more grabs, but improving week in, week out.

 

[hardway]

Do you think its time we give players like Little and murphy a go??? Brennen reminds me to much of Holland i cant go with another 10 years of terrible kicking from one player, however he had lots of friends today...

 

[Binxy]

Dixon - He's back. 0/10

You called it Supe.

 

[Binxy]

The "game plan" should probably get a mention in your review Supe. It seemed Hay (and Everitt and others) were playing as if deliberately instructed to go sideways at all times. As you said - Shwabesque.
I don't know if I can go through all this again.

 

[Jordan]

How can you teach a team to play that sort of ********. Wouldnt have a white board big enough.

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

I know Jacobs hasn't lived up to our expections or requirements of him, but apparently he and Taylor were both ill with the flu today. He asked not to play but was told they had nobody to replace him with, so he had to play. So I guess he had some excuses today. I know when I've had the flu it's hard to get out of bed let alone run around a footy field for 100 minutes.

Clarko said in a press conference afterwards that he thought the last quarter was much better when he asked the players to perform with a free spirit. He never said what he asked them to do at the start of the match, that would have been interesting.

And does anyone know why he was seen to be physically abusing one or two of the players? I only caught a glimpse of it, so I don't know how serious it was or who the players were.

 

[thurgood33]

he seemed to grab both jordan lewis and richie vandenburg by the jumper and shake them pretty roughly, looked he was going to burst a blood vessel... dont know why they were singled out?

 

[Grendel]

Well that was rubbish. Schwab-esque.

Yep.

What we showed today is that we are most definitely a bottom 4 side for one simple reason: we have absolutely ZERO depth. The late withdrawl of Bateman (big loss today), Taylor and Thurgood meant that we had a 22 comprising Jacobs, Sewell, Greene, Ries, Holland. 5 players that are flat out not AFL standard. And then we had plenty of others playing like they weren't.

Basically, our whole balance was wrong from my pov. Five (Mitchell, Ries, Lewis, Sewell and the way he's been playing of late he's almost a de-facto one, Hodge) centremen? Lots of 'inside' ball winners and precious few, outside ball carriers. On the small ground, quick run and effective delivery are important. Doggies showed that through the likes of.. to many to name.

They beat us before we even got on the ground with the selection of the relative sides. Their run just killed us.

The Bulldogs had four injured players on the bench and the 22 point defeat still flattered us. With the exception of maybe half a dozen, today was unacceptable.

Well at least Clarkson said the exact same in his match review. Question will now be, what will the result at the selection table for the rest of the season bring? Some blokes probably do need to be looked at just to make a real judgement on if they have or don't have a future. Greene, Lonie, Kane, Sewell, Ball probably all should be given some senior game time just to be definitive about who to retain or delist. Some probably already have their cards marked regardless.

Depth is the key though as you say. Until we start to bring in some more quality (preferably youthful quality at that) we are going to be exposed more often than not when we cant put the best 22/24 on the list on the park at any given stage.

With three wins in the first half of the season (having played pretty well for most of it), priority picks are a genuine possibility given our recent form and the tough month ahead.

Yep, which is probably as it should be. By that I don't mean to 'accept defeat' which some view the idea of picking up a priority selection.

My own feeling is that the criteria should of been changed to ten wins over two seasons. We'd likely qualify under that sort of ruling. As it is, like you say though, it's not out of the question that two wins might be all we may get for the rest of the season. May come down to just how we fair injury wise. We start to cop a few (if Williams were to miss for instance) we'd be in real bother.

Everitt - Heaps of hitouts, very little influence. Had he converted a couple of scoring opportunities he may have fared better but far from his best game. Little influence and presence around the ground. 5/10

Doesn't play the ground well. Not sure why but he's not alone (as a side, we are deplorable at Coronial) there. Clever from Rocket to rotate a real beanpole in the centre to negate the taps and a grunt (as an aside, he is a HUGE unit) type in Minson to body/bang into him around the ground. 5/10.

Holland - Started well and gave a tall marking target. Faded just as quickly. 3/10

2nd best we had in the first q (after Hodge). Kept trying to work but geez.. he's just so mechanical now. Never the most free moving bloke but it's sad to see him literally running only in straight lines. Tried though, 3/10.

Hay - Gives away more stupid free kicks than any full back going around, but on the whole he was one of our better players today (though that is saying alot) 5/10

Beat whatever talls they rotated through at F/F. Caught out by Murphy for awhile but looked much better when a smaller back took that role. Tried to create a bit of run from defence but his lack of skills and at times, lack of ability of team-mates to give it to him without Hay having to double-back didn't help. 5/10.

Mitchell - Master vs Apprentice today and Mitchell was thoroughly thrashed by Scotty West. Tried his guts out as always but very ineffective. 3/10

Got crunced (again) by the Doggies taggers. Some protection for this bloke would be nice. Still he was beaten but as said, gave it his all. Wonder how much the shoulder was bothering him, 4/10.

Williams - Superstar. Kicked 6 with some of the worst delivery imaginable and three Bulldogs teaming him on many occassions. Absolute, out and out star. 9/10

Not quite that high a praise but his work-rate was unquestionable. Kept presenting and presenting and PRESENTING. Only for the blokes up-field to 'Schwab' him. Go to the contest and more often than not, he'll win it. 7/10.

Osborne - Rubbish performance. He's quick, has aggro and can use the footy. Has all the tools to be a good back pocket but fails to put it together far too often. 2/10

Love to know if he's got a Jekyll/Hyde forumla that he takes prior to matches. Sometimes so very very good, sometimes so very very awful.

Less the Ed, more the Henry please Ossie. 3/10.

Jacobs - Ordinary. Contributed little. 3/10

Struggled for a match up and got caught out by the pace of the Doggies half-forwards (whoever Rocket rotated through that line.. and he rotated plenty). A couple of decent grabs but.. slipping in form after an encouraging first half of the season. Worrying. 3/10.

Crawford - Apparently he was crook during the week. It showed. Very poor outing. 2/10

Flu bug from what I've heard. Not one to mark in the memory file, 3/10.

Smith - Diabolical. The worst 24 possession game i've seen. If we had anything worthwhile at Box Hill i'd drop him. Instead, I say we send forward. 1/10

Seems to be the one bloke really struggling to shake off the 'Schwab' style. Every first movement is sideways, every time. He's far better than that. Don't want him out of the side because he's capable of so much better. Given that he started off as a hff, I'd try him there just to get him in range where if he can collect the ball, he might be able to use it to do something (i.e, take a shot on goal at least). 2/10.

Hodge - Very good. Won a stack of clearances (very important given Mitchell's quiet day), used it well and was the only bloke prepared to kick it long to a goal scoring machine at full forward. Kept us in it. 7/10

Yep, only quibble (Cross?) I think it was gave them quite a lot of it 'the other way' who I think (was hard to tell given that neither seemed to close to the other) was trying to pick him up. But easily our best (again). Was trying from the get go to tell blokes where to lead to, when to run, when to move back etc.

Thank God he's ours, terrific footballer.

Ries - VFL. For life. 1/10

Maybe... for us at least. The trouble is, he's shown (as little as three games ago) that he can offer at AFL level. My concern is, that his best wont ever be with us because basically, he's a centre and there's now at least two ahead of him, Mitchell and Lewis that he's never going to be better than.

Needs a new club (and one that needs a pure inside midfielder) if he's ever going to have a career of any note at the top level. 2/10.

Brennan - Didn't have much impact. Kicked a late goal. 2/10

Another that was cruelled by the delivery (or lack of). Presented a lot from my pov, ignored just as often. His best asset is he can take a contested grab. The sooner his team-mates accept this as a fact the sooner Brennan might start to offer something as a senior footballer. 2/10.

Ladson - Thought he was decent after half time. 5/10

Yep, once moved onto a pure wing he provided some much missing linking between the back arc and the forward arc. A CHF for him to deliver to would be a bonus. He's got some talent though, one to really give some senior game time and let him develop. 5/10

Dixon - He's back. 0/10

This could/should be the game they look at come seasons end. Simply put, we need to not see this type of game from anyone. Hugely disappointing.

Vandenberg - Worked hard for little reward. His skills didn't stand out so much today, which tells you how his teammates were going. 5/10

Yea, a game. 4/10.

Croad - Poor. He's got runs on the board this year but that was a day to forget. Some real brain fades and poor skills errors. Big challenge next week on Riewoldt. 2/10

Another that's slipped the last month or so. To much 'old Croad' and not enough 'new' Croad. 3/10.

Clarke - Had a dip but didn't play a huge role in the game. 3/10

Disagree. Thought he was used to 'spot-fire' Doggies runners. Whenever a Ray, Giansiracusa, Gillbee etc seemed to be getting on a bit of a role, I'd see Clarke all of a sudden being shifted onto him. Thought he was a victim of the Eade/Clarkson chess game. Eade clearly made our moves reactive and Clarke was like the pawn being used to stem whatever move Eade came up with. 5/10

[/QUOTE]Sewell - Just not AFL standard. 1/10[/QUOTE]

See Ries. Whatever chance he has of making it, he needs another club to be able to play his correct role (centre) to do it. 2/10.

Greene - See above. 1/10

The one bloke I was disappointed wasn't left on for longer. He's an all-day runner, should of left him on a wing and seen what he might have been able to do. Wont ever impact with being dragged on/off the bench like he was used yesterday. 2/10.

Brown - I knew he'd bounce back after last week. Has played 10 good games this year. Tough, hard and runs in straight lines. 6/10

Yep, got swamped by the sheed weight of numbers but when one-on-one in a contest normally would at least break even or better. 6/10

Franklin - It's not going to be easy for him if his senior teammates play like they did today too often. Looking a little lost right now. 2/10

Liked some things, didn't like others. The dropped chest marks, he's got to improve in that area. The actual work-rate to chase, tackle etc. Much welcome sight. He's 18 (have to keep reminding myself) and he's got a target on him everytime he steps on the field. He will learn and I'd rather see him learn at AFL level than VFL level. 3/10.

Lewis - Very encouraging. Reminds me of Scott Burns (with a few screws loose). He'll be a player. 6/10

Yep, if he was the reason that we took that move up from 10 to 7, credit to them. Angry, hard and smart natural footballer. Good player. 6/10.

 

[Choota]

Dixon - He's back. 0/10